Can Human Memory be Improved?
Improving Human Memory

For centuries it was believed that memory can be improved. The Greeks, and later the Romans, developed some of the most prodigious memories the civilized world has ever seen. Memory was ranked as one of the most important disciplines of oratory, a flourishing art at the time. They lived in an age with no paper, so people couldn’t readily refer to notes. Speeches were committed to memory; lawyers depended on their memory in court; and poets, whose roles in society was paramount, regularly drew on their enormous powers of recall to recite long passages of verse.

The Greeks in general had a high level of literacy. Important texts were recorded on papyrus, and wax tablets were used to teach reading and writing in schools. Nevertheless, their culture remained a predominantly oral one.

While it is still accepted that it is the ability to recall to memory that makes learning possible, it is nowadays widely — and falsely — believed that memory cannot be improved. Perhaps that is why the role that memory training can play in preventing and overcoming learning disabilities is grossly underestimated.

In their article in the Learning Disabilities Quarterly Scruggs and Mastropieri evaluated the results of mnemonic instruction in learning disabilities intervention, and concluded, “mnemonic instruction delivers the greatest learning increases seen in the history of learning disabilities intervention research.”

Defined in broad terms, a mnemonic is a device, procedure, or operation that is used to improve memory. Defined in narrow terms — and what Scruggs and Mastropieri mean by the word — a mnemonic is a specific reconstruction of target content intended to tie new information more closely to the learner's existing knowledge base and, therefore, facilitate retrieval. Mnemonics have been used for thousands of years. Having limited access to writing materials, the Ancient Greeks developed complex mnemonic systems for remembering stories, poems, plays and lectures. Many of the Ancient Greek techniques were revived in the Middle Ages, where they were sometimes associated with mysticism and the occult. However, with the invention of the printing press these ancient arts became lost as more and more people relied — sometimes exclusively — on note-taking and on the printed page.

There are a variety of mnemonic techniques, including keywords, pegwords, acronyms, loci methods, spelling mnemonics, phonetic mnemonics, number-sound mnemonics, and Japanese “Yodai” methods. An example of an acronym is to remember the word HOMES to recall the names of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. The purpose of number-sound mnemonics is to recall strings of numbers, such as telephone numbers, addresses, locker combinations or historical dates. To use them, learners must first learn the number-sound relationships: 0=s; 1=t; 2=n; 3=m; 4=r; 5=l; 6=sh, ch, or soft g, 7=k, hard c, or hard g; 8=f or v; and 9=p. To remember the date 1439, for example, the learner uses the associated consonant sounds, t, r, m and p, and will insert vowels to create a meaningful word or words. In this case, the word “tramp” can be used. Spelling mnemonics is intended to help us remember the spelling of words. In order to remember that the word “cemetery” is spelled with three e's, for example, one can picture a lady screaming 'E-E-E' as she walks past the cemetery.

In their research Scruggs and Mastropieri synthesized the results of twenty-four experimental investigations of mnemonic instruction in special education settings. They found that the overall effect size of these combined investigations was 1.62 standard deviation units. According to them this was the highest measure of treatment effectiveness reported at the time. For comparison, Kavale and Forness reviewed previous quantitative syntheses of special education interventions, reporting overall effect sizes ranging from -0.12 to +0.58, for such interventions as reduced class size, special class placement, psycholinguistic training, perceptual-motor training, stimulant and psychotropic drugs, and diet interventions. Also compare Scruggs’ and Mastropieri’s finding with the overall effect size for systematic phonics instruction, reported by the National Reading Panel as 0.32 for LD children and 0.15 for low-achievers from 2nd to 6th grade.

Scruggs and Mastropieri demonstrate, first of all, that memory can be trained, and second, the importance of memory training in helping LD children. There are, however, at least two problems in improving memory by means of mnemonic instruction. The first problem is that it overlooks the sequential fashion of learning. Mnemonics instruction is, to a large extent, instruction in memory techniques, which should be taught only after the skill of memory has been learned. It can be compared to a child being taught soccer tactics, such as the “wall pass,” while he has not yet adequately mastered the skill of passing the ball. As stated in Knowabout Soccer, “No matter how good your passing technique, if the quality of your passing is poor, your technique will not be effective.” The second problem is that by teaching the child to use memory crutches, the result is, as Scruggs and Mastropieri acknowledge, “On more complex applications, generalization attempts have been less successful.” If the skill of memory is taught, however, the child can apply it in any situation.

Audiblox teaches — among other skills — the skill of memory, which makes it possible for a person to apply his memory in any situation.

Sourses

• O’Brien, D., How to Develop a Perfect Memory (London: Headline Book Publishing, 1994).
• Scruggs, T. E., & Mastropieri, M. A., “Mnemonic instruction for students with learning disabilities: What it is and what it does,” Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 1990, vol. 13, 271-280.
• Yussen, S. R., & Santrock, J. W., Child Development (2nd ed.), (Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company, 1982).