IA ideas

Imagery vs rehearsal.  Bower (1967); Paivio (1971)

Participants were shown a list of 20 words and were then asked to recall as many of them as possible. It was found that using an imagery method where the participant forms a vivid mental image and links it to the item was the most efficient way and worked better than either rehearsal or no particular method.


Does background music impair memory? (e.g. Perham & Vizard 2010).

In 2010 a study of how music affects our memory was conducted by Nick Perham and Joanne Vizard. The participants had to recall a list of 8 consonants in presentation order during five different circumstances. When it was quite, or when they were listening to liked music, disliked music, a changing state (hearing random numbers) and a steady state (hearing a repeated number). Their ability to recall was approximately the same but worst was music and the changing state. The authors expected that it was because when you are trying to memorize things in order you get thrown off by the other changing words that you are hearing at the same time. So, although music is good for our health by reducing anxiety for example, it is better to perform hard tasks is silence and listen to the music prior to the task rather that during it.


Exercise and memory. Coles & Tomporowski (2008)

This study was conducted to see how exercise effects short-term and long-term memory. 18 young adults were asked to perform different memory test before and then after a 40 minutes workout. The exercise did not improve the short-term memory but it improved the long-term memory. Before exercising lot of information was lost between short-term and long-term memory but after exercise the information was maintain and easier to recall.