GI $
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).