Study found that students who practiced writing spelling words to the point of fatigue performed significantly more poorly on a post-test than students who had not practiced at all. (RT)

This study focuses on the long-term retention of basic mathematical techniques in a first-year calculus course, involving a sample group of engineering students at the University of Pretoria. The study investigates which and how much of the basic mathematical knowledge and rote skills acquired in the first year of study is retained after a further…

This experiment investigated the assumption that children's learning and retention of prose material can be differentially affected by varying discrepancy from expectation (as established by an advance organizer). It was hypothesized that a passage which differed significantly from expectation would produce heightened arousal, which should in turn…

Examines four varieties of curriculum irrelevance, including curricula that are fixed, antiseptic, trivial, and right answer-oriented. Suggests that educators need to stress curricular context and concern themselves more with process and less with products. Includes 10 references. (MLH)

Explains the difference between rote and experiential/locale learning, their effects on neurons of the brain, and their impact on short- and long-term memory. Draws upon brain research to explore the effects of stress and boredom on learning. Notes programs that employ teaching methods using brain-based theories of learning. (DMM)

Research comparing discovery and expository methods of presentation has yielded conflicting results. A review of the research on discovery learning is provided in this paper, focusing on the methodology of each study. Conclusions are drawn concerning the effects of discovery methods of presentation on initial learning, transfer, and retention. Use…

Examines the six categories that make up the cognitive process dimension of Bloom's Taxonomy Table, as well as the 19 specific cognitive processes that fit within them. After describing three learning outcomes, the paper focuses on retention versus transfer of learning and rote versus meaningful learning, discussing how teaching and assessment can…

Findings from 4 experiments with a total of 218 college students, in which the retention interval for second-language vocabulary words was treated as a between-subjects factor, indicate that long-term forgetting is greater for learners instructed to use the keyword mnemonic than for learners engaged in rote rehearsal. (SLD)

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of game-like learning activities, as compared to rote memorization procedures, on preschool subjects (n=8) recitation of their home telephone numbers. A rhyming mnemonic memory device was incorporated into the game procedures. A group design was used with a pretest-training-posttest…

A series of pilot experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of stress induced by load and interference on the acquisition and retention of a path finding skill, and to investigate the relationship between two path finding strategies--retention of strings of instructions and understanding of global relationships--as components of…

Experiments were performed to determine the contribution of imagery and semantic factors to the hypermnesia effect (increases in retention over successive recall attempts). Results showed that hypermnesia accompanies meaningful processing regardless of whether verbal or imagery encoding is emphasized. Semantic elaboration increases reminiscence…

Beginning with a preconceived bias that "real" (i.e. nonartifactual) age differences in transfer and retroaction do exist, the author feels that the available literature permits no clear conclusions relating the process of aging and transfer mechanisms, or aging and retroaction. Research to date is viewed as assuming that "interference" manifests…

Ten principles to apply in teaching children to memorize basic facts are discussed. (MN)