Associability of Abstract Shapes and Their Use in Spatial Mnemonics

• In Event: Instructional Technology SIG: Instructional Design Research: Current and Emerging Trends

Abstract

This experiment extends previous work indicating abstract figures with high potential for prompting word associations yield more effective mnemonic displays than shapes having a low associative potential. Twenty-nine graduate students studied six displays each consisting of five target words superimposed on a four-line figure previously normed for its capacity for generating word associations. Following 30-second study of each display, participants completed explicit and implicit recall tasks, with latencies gathered on the latter, and repeated this procedure. Participants successfully used the displays but their associative potential did not contribute to recall accuracy. A figure's power for eliciting word associations, however, interacted with the type of recall cue used across trials when the dependent measure was speed of recall response.

Author

• William Andrew Kealy, University of North Carolina - Greensboro