Chapter 2, page 41
Integration strategies. Integration strategies explicitly connect information in working memory
with information from long-term memory (Mayer, 1989). Integration strategies are powerful ways of
encoding information effectively into LTM. Table 2.2 shows a broad array of specific integration
strategies.
Table 2.2 Integration strategies
Integration
strategy
Explanation and examples
Imagery Imagery is the strategy of creating visual mental images in your mind’s eye. Imagery is a very
potent memory strategy (refs xx). Imagery allows you to link new information to visual
information stored in LTM. For example, when trying to remember details about the Boston Tea
Party, a learner can generate a vivid “movie” in his mind that includes all the details he wants to
remember.
Keyword
method
When using the keyword method, the learner links the words being learned to other words already
known. The linked word or words become the keyword. The keyword method is a strategy that
has been found to be very effective for learning words, both words in foreign languages and
words in one’s native language (refs xx).
For example, when trying to learn that the German word frau means woman, a learner might
generate a mental image of a woman frowning severely. Because the word frown sounds similar
to the German word frau, the image helps you remember better. In this case, frown is the
keyword that helps you remember the word frau, via the mental image you create.
As another example, a student studying the SAT word dormant might remember that one
meaning is asleep or acting as if one is asleep by imagining a door that is sleeping for a time. The
word door is the key that helps the learner recall dormant via the mental image.