Motivation and Learning Strategies for College Success : A Self-management Approach

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UNDERSTANDING LEARNING AND MEMORY 45

Purple

Man

Girl

Child

Piano

Flute

Organ

Heart

Lung

Finger

Eagle

Hawk

Robin

Stop now, cover the preceding list, and write down as many words

from this list as you can remember.

Each semester my students report that they remembered more

from the second list. The two lists include the same words, but the

second list is organized by category. Obviously, you did benefit from

seeing the list a second time, but most of the improvement on the

second list came from the organization provided by presenting the

words in categories.

Internal organization of material helps learning and retention. An inves-

tigation by Bower, Clark, Lesgold, and Winzenz (1969) illustrated this find-

ing in an investigation in which college students were given four study ses-

sions to learn 112 words that were classified into four categories (e.g.,

minerals, plants, etc.). Some students had words arranged randomly, whereas

others had words arranged in four different hierarchies (see Fig. 2.2 for the

Minerals

Metals Stones

Rare Common Alloys Precious Masonry

Platinum Aluminum Bronze Sapphire Limestone

Silver Copper Steel Emerald Granite

Gold Lead Brass Diamond Marble

Iron Ruby Slate

FIG. 2.2. Example of a hierarchy (Bower et al., 1969).