Strategies for Enhancing Memory and Comprehension
after Seifert (1995, p4-4 to 4-16)
Strategy - Theoretical Explanation - Steps to Execute - Example
imagery - dual coding, generative theory, (elaboration) - 1. read the information to be remembered, 2. make a picture in your head - picture a hockey player skating on spaghetti to remember the after-the-game party supplies
elaborative interrogation - prior knowledge activation, (elaboration) - 1. read the fact, 2. ask why the fact would it be true, 3. generate an answer - ask, "Why are crystals in volcanic rocks smaller than plutonic rocks?"
acronyms - transformation, organization, (organization) - 1. list words, 2. list first letters, 3. use letters to create, alternative words, 4. replace new words until the sentence makes sense, 5. practice remembering - I A(M) SICK => Imagery, Acronyms, (mnemonics,) Summarizing, Interrogation, Concept mapping, Keywords
keyword mnemonics - imagery, transformation, (elaboration, organization) - 1. identify new word pair, 2. find familiar similar-sounding word, 3. create an image linking new
and familiar words, 4. practice remembering the image - Seifert -> sea fort; picture an explorer travelling by sailing ship looking towards a fort on shore
summarizing - attention, relate concepts, transformation, (elaboration, organization) - 1. read text, 2. identify main ideas, 3. write a summary sentence in own words, 4. combine summary sentences into a paragraph - many examples throughout this paper!
concept mapping or webbing - identify concepts and relationships, visual representation, dual coding, (elaboration, organization) - 1. read text, 2. list important concepts, 3. arrange concepts based on relationships, 4. draw lines, 5. label lines with the relationship - examples are not linear but two dimensional and difficult to represent here; consider the hypertext structure of Internet home pages