Vol. 6. No. 2
A-2
September 2002
Memory Enhancement in Language Pedagogy:
Implications from Cognitive Research
Farzad Sharifian, PhD
Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA, Australia
<f.sharifian@cowan.edu.au>
Abstract
This paper reviews a number of sub-paradigms in cognitive research on memory
enhancement and explores some insights that they may have for theory and practice in
English language teaching (ELT). The research reviewed in this paper has made rigorous
attempts to discover perceptual and processing strategies that may enhance retention of
information in human cognitive storage. For example, it has been found that generation
of stimuli by learners, rather than simple reading, enhances retention. The research
findings reviewed in this paper provide language teachers with insights about how the
human memory works and how its efficiency may be increased.
Introduction
This paper reviews research on memory enhancement carried out by cognitive scientists,
and presents some insights emerging from this research for English language teaching
(ELT) theory and practice. The basic premise underlying this attempt is that instruction of
any sort is concerned with the human cognitive system, and thus an understanding of how
the cognitive system works contributes to the effective design and implementation of
instructional materials (Brian & Eastmond, 1994). As Brunning, Schraw, and Ronning
(1999) put it: "There are very few educational decisions to which the cognitive issues of
memory, thinking, and problem solving are not relevant" (p. iv).
The main storage mechanism of the human cognitive system is memory, and a major
concern of language instruction is with how to enhance learners' memory skills. This
notion has been well researched by cognitive psychologists (Alt, 1999), although the
majority of studies have focused on memory in L1. However, the results with L2 learners
do not appear to conflict with L1 results (see, for example, Sharifian, 2001a). For other
cognitive processes in bilingual speakers, research has thus far revealed that as the level
of proficiency in L2 increases, cognitive processing largely approximates that of L1
(Sharifian, 2002).
Traditionally, several strategies, called mnemonics, have been proposed for memory
enhancement. Some of the most popular mnemonics are pegs, loci, first-letters, and
keywords. These mnemonics allow for elaborate encoding or storage of new materials
and strong memory traces (Brunning, Schraw, and Ronning, 1999). Pegs are well-learned
items of any type on which to-be-learned information can be hung. The method of loci
involves learning a very imaginable location--like one's house--well and visualizing it
many times so that various parts of it, called drops, can be imagined easily. These drops
must be learned in an order: for example, the door first, the furniture next, and then the
dining room. The items to be remembered are then associated with these drops. At the
time of recall, a simple taking of this mental tour evokes the images of the memorized
items. The first-letter method involves using the first letters of the items to construct
acronyms or words in order to remember them (Boltwood & Blick, 1978). Keywords link
an L2 word with an L1 word that sound alike in some way (e.g., Dutch kreeft sounds like
the English craft). Therefore, (craft) is the keyword for an English speaker learning
Dutch. Keywords can also use interactive images (e.g., kreeft means lobster, so the
learner might visualize a lobster on a craft (boat)).
These methods are mainly to be used by learners when attempting to memorize items that
are unrelated either to each other or to the current knowledge of the learner. The
following section reviews more rigorous and systematic research carried out on various
aspects of memory retention and its relation to presentation and perception of linguistic
stimuli. The findings of cognitive research on memory can provide teachers with insights
about the nature of memory and memory enhancement. [-1-]
The Generation Effect
The generation effect refers to the finding that learners are more likely to remember the
items that they have generated in one way or another, either totally or partially, than the
items they have just read and memorized (e.g., Kinjo & Snodgrass, 2000; Moshfeghi &
Sharifian, 1998a, 1998b; Slamecka & Graf, 1978; Snodgrass & Kinjo, 1998). In a classic
study, Slamecka and Graf (1978) consistently found across five experiments that a
generated word was remembered better than a read word under a variety of generation
conditions (e.g., generating a semantic associate, a categorical associate, an antonym, a
synonym, or a rhyme to a stimulus word), and under a variety of test conditions.
The generation effect has also been obtained with sentences (Anderson, Goldberg, &
Hidde, 1971) and texts (Einstein et al, 1984). Einstein et al. (1984), for example, found
that recall of a fairy tale was significantly better if subjects were required to fill in deleted
letters as they read the fairy tale, as opposed to a straightforward reading of the passage
for comprehension. In two studies with learners of English as a second language,
Moshfeghi and Sharifian (1998a, 1998b) obtained a generation effect, demonstrating that
different degrees of generation entailed differential retention and recall. That is, the
results of the tasks that require higher degrees of generation are better retained and
recalled. They concluded that generation should be considered a matter of degree rather
than an "either/or" phenomenon.
Research has also demonstrated that self-generation of cues (i.e., one or a few words) for
the paragraphs of a text either during learning or at the onset of recall facilitates the
retrieval of a text's contents, whether or not the cues are inspected during recall (Sharifian,
2000, 2001a; van Dam & Brinkerink-Carlier, 1988, 1989, 1990; van Dam, BrinkerinkCarlier, & Kok, 1987). Sharifian (2001a), for instance, found a facilitative effect for selfgenerated cues on the written recall of narrative texts in learners of English as a second
language. Self-generated cues may simply be notes that a reader makes during reading or
a list of short cues (one or more words) remembered for every paragraph. The list may be
produced prior to the recall of the whole text or immediately after reading the text.
Developers of language curricula as well as language teachers may benefit from these
memory effects in the design and implementation of materials for language learners. Subprocesses of language learning may all be fostered by allowing for maximal generation of
stimuli on the part of learners. [-2-]
The Isolation Effect
The Isolation effect (IE), also referred to as "the von Restorff effect," refers to an
improvement in memory retention for an item when it is placed among a set of items that
are semantically homogenous with each other but at odds with the new item (Dunlosky,
Hunt, & Clark, 2000; Hunt, 1995). For example, if the word car is inserted into a list of
vocabulary items that pertain to breakfast, such as bread, butter, cereal, eggs, coffee, etc.,
the memory for car is enhanced. The isolation effect is a very robust finding, spanning
numerous variations and replications.
Dunlosky, Hunt, and Clark (2000) show that neither salience nor rehearsal is necessary
for producing an isolation effect. It is only the context of similarity into which the
different item is placed that counts in obtaining an isolation effect. The element of
isolation in IE has been obtained by introducing a difference in attributes such as color,
size, shape, voice, meaningfulness, underlining, noise, borders, and so forth (Cimbalo,
1978). Language teachers and materials developers may draw on this finding in designing
and implementing language activities.
The Time-of-day Effect
Research has also revealed changes in the functioning and efficiency of cognitive
processes according to the time of day at which they are carried out (Broughton &
Ogilvie, 1992, 1990; Monk, 1991). Maury & Queinnec (1993) found that at 6 p.m., more
words were recalled from a beginning of the list, whereas at 2 a.m., more words were
recalled from the end of a list.
Research has also shown differences in comprehension and general memory for a text at
different times of a day. Oakhill (1986a, 1986b, 1988) found that immediate recall and
recognition of sentences and texts involved more maintenance of superficial linguistic
forms (i.e., holding them in short-term memory without elaboration) in the morning and
elaborative and integrative process (elaborating information in long-term memory and
integrating it with prior knowledge) in the afternoon. This simply means that in the
morning the surface linguistic forms, which are usually retained in short-term memory
for a limited period of time, were remembered better, while in the afternoon the semantic
features, which are mainly retained in long-term memory, were remembered better.
Lorenzetti and Natale (1996) examined the occurrence of different strategies of
comprehending written texts at different times of the day. They used methods of
immediate free recall, question answering, and filling-in for investigating inferential
production. They found that recall of superficial linguistic information of a text was
better in morning trials, while inferential production was greater in afternoon trials.
The Serial-Position Effect
Serial-position effect refers to the experience that in memorizing a list of items or events,
the first few items are remembered best, the last few next best, and the items in the center
are the hardest to recall (Frensch, 1994; Healy, Havas, & Parker, 2000; Todd & Roediger,
1995). The higher recall for the first items on the list is called the primacy effect, and the
better recall on end-of-list items is called the recency effect. Serial position effects have
in fact been found in a variety of tasks, but the effects vary in the breadth of their extent
(Healy, Havas, & Parker, 2000).
Material developers and teachers may benefit from these memory effects in organizing
to-be-learned materials. They may, for instance, present the most complex items at the
beginning of and the next most complicated at the end of the lesson or the list.
Alternatively, extra attention may be directed to the middle items. [-3-]
The Spacing Effect
Research has shown a superiority in recall when the repetition of an item is spaced rather
than massed during study (Dempster & Farris, 1990; Kelly &.Rubin, 1998; Mizuno, 1998;
Bahrick, et al, 1993). This finding has been known as spacing effect. The spacing effect is
a very robust finding which "has been observed in virtually every experimental learning
paradigm, and with all sorts of traditional research materials" (Dempster & Farris, 1990,
p. 97). In an experiment (Glover & Corkill, 1987) the participants listened to a brief
lecture, with either a 30-minute interval or a zero-lag between two presentations. Later
testing showed memory superiority for the spaced presentation of the lecture.
Additionally, in another study by Dempster (1987), 38 uncommon English words and
their definitions were presented three times, either with each repetition of any given word
separated by every other word, or with each repetition of word massed in succession. In
addition, the words were presented either with or without sentence contexts. In three
experiments, spaced presentations yielded substantially superior levels of vocabulary
learning than did massed presentations. In an experiment (Bahrick & Phelps, 1987), a
surprise retention test was administered to 35 adults who had learned and relearned 50
English-Spanish vocabulary word pairs under various conditions of spacing eight years
earlier. The spacing manipulation was found to have a large effect on retention.
Participants who had relearned the vocabulary items at 30-day intervals were able to
define two to three times as many Spanish words as informants whose relearning
occurred at 24-hour intervals or less.
In designing an effective syllabus for language teaching, the spacing effect may be
considered in sequencing and optimally phasing in new materials. It can also be used by
teachers in decisions they make about best timing their lesson reviews, quizzes, and
activities such as writing summaries about previous lessons, etc.
The Modality Effect
The modality effect refers to the research finding that auditory presentation of stimuli
shows memory superiority over their visual presentation (Glenberg & Fernandez, 1988;
Jakimik & Glenberg, 1990; Neath, 1997). Glenberg and Fernandez (1988), for example,
tested memory for the order of occurrence of a series of items and found superior
accuracy for items heard rather than seen. Jakimik and Glenberg (1990) also found
superiority for auditory over visual resolution and comprehension of temporal anaphors
(e.g., former/latter, first/second). Frankish (1989) believes that this superior memory
effect for auditory presentation is thanks to the prosodic features of the oral language,
which facilitate storage and retrieval of suprasegmental units. [-4-]
Research has also been conducted concerning the effect of single as opposed to dual
mode presentation of stimuli. The results show that dual-modality presentation (e.g.,
auditory text and visual diagrams) can result in superior learning than single-modality
presentation (e.g., visual text and visual diagrams) (Kalyuga, Chandler, & Sweller, 2000;
Tindall-Ford, Chandler, & Sweller, 1997).
The Self-Reference Effect
The self-reference effect refers to the research finding that free recall of linguistic items is
superior when those items have been processed with reference to the self rather than
others or other things (Bellezza & Hoyt, 1992; Forsyth & Wibberly, 1993; Singh, 1995;
Symons & Johnson, 1997). Singh (1995), for example, used incidental recall as the
measure of memory and examined the self-reference effect in three experiments. The
results found a facilitative effect for self-reference on retention across different types of
materials, tasks, and affective states: "Self emerged as a strong cognitive schema that
mediates and regulates behavior in many ways" (Singh, 1995, p. 237).
The self-reference effect has been obtained repeatedly under various conditions, such as
with instructions to create mental imagery (Brown, Keenan, & Potts, 1986), and with
prose passages (Reeder, McCormick, & Esselman, 1987). Bellezza and Hoyt (1992)
found that mental cues that referred to "self" enhanced free recall. Mental cues are words
or phrases that are used to facilitate free recall. An example of a mental cue that refers to
self would be "my room." Bellezza and Hoyt conclude: "[S]elf plays an important part in
what we learn and recall . . . "(1992, p. 51). Forsyth and Wibberly (1993) obtained a selfreference effect for oral presentation of adjectives in classroom conditions. The selfreference effect can best be employed in developing materials and exercises for language
learners. In introducing new teaching points, language teachers may ask students to relate
to-be-learned items to their self-schemas and formulate examples that refer to the self.
The Bizarreness Effect
The bizarreness effect refers to the superior recall of stimuli that have bizarre, atypical
referents (e.g., McDaniel & Einstein, 1986; Weir & Richman, 1996). This enhancement
of bizarre, relative to common, sentence recall is believed to arise from an increase in
cognitive effort (Imai & Richman, 1991). The following is an example of a bizarre
sentence, taken from Worthen and Marshall (1996):
The butterfly examined the biologist using the microscope.
Readers may need to spend some cognitive effort in constructing images and mapping
them from one domain to another in order to visualize the above scene. This increase in
mental effort appears to lead to a lasting retention of the visual and linguistic features
which are associated with this process. This principle may account for a number of
effects obtained during memory experiments, such as the generation effect.
In terms of the implications that findings such as the bizarreness effect have for the
teaching of languages, it may appear that drawing on such findings would work against
the principle of "authenticity" of materials presentation. It is, however, an understanding
of how the human memory works that is intended in presenting the findings of memory
research here. Such an understanding may only contribute to the effectiveness of
instruction if other factors such the contexts of social situation are geared toward the best
use of these findings. [-5-]
The Encoding-Context Effect
Reviving the environmental context in which items have been learned aids has also been
show to aid recall (Parker, Gellatly, & Waterman, 1999). That is, memory performance is
enhanced when learning and testing take place in the same or similar environment(s). It
seems that contextual information is stored along with memories, and provision of this
information or the contextual elements to which they refer help activate those memories.
This memory enhancement effect has been reported for the physical as well as emotional
context. Jerabek and Standing (1992) found that even visualizing the future testing room
during learning, rather than other scenes, enhanced recall. Research has also shown that
in general, recall is higher when emotional state and mood at test match emotional state
and mood at study. It has also been shown that people learn more about events that match
their mood state (Mecklenbraeuker & Hager, 1984). This finding has implications for the
theory and practice of language testing. The degree of familiarity with the physical
context of testing places some test-takers at an advantage, rendering the assessment more
challenging to others.
Processing-Difficulty Effect
Several studies have found an inverse relation between processing difficulty and
subsequent memory performance, in that processing difficulty has shown to enhance
memory (O'Brien & Myers, 1985). This is in line with the general observation made
above that the amount of cognitive effort expended to encode information appears to be
directly related to the recall of that information (Walker, Jones, & Mar, 1983). O'Brien &
Myers (1985) found that participants in their study took longer to comprehend a line of
text when it contained an unpredictable target word, but this increased processing time
facilitated recall and recognition of the unpredictable word. They proposed that when
readers encounter concepts that are difficult to integrate, they will reprocess earlier
portions of a text in an attempt to integrate the unexpected concept with the text and if
successful, this reprocessing will improve memory for selected portions of a text. Walker
et al. (1983) used a self-paced reading paradigm in which participants read a series of
short paragraphs and were later cued to recall the final sentence of each. It was found that
recall was significantly improved when more processing was required to correctly
interpret the anaphoric relationship expressed in the final sentence.
Conclusion
Several directions in memory research have been reviewed, along with their implications
for the field of language pedagogy. These studies have focused on determining perceptual
and processing strategies that can enhance memory. Both theory and practice in language
pedagogy may benefit from the insights gained through cognitive research on memory.
Such insights may be drawn on in formulating theoretical principles and methodological
techniques for effective instruction and evaluation. The findings may also prove
beneficial in optimizing schedules and programs as well as in developing multimedia
plans and materials. [-6-]
A major trend arising from a number of these studies is that an increase in cognitive
effort may lead to better memory. As an implication for teaching, this may somehow
seem counterintuitive to language teachers, as the ultimate aim of instruction is to
facilitate and simplify the task of learning for learners. This issue in fact arises from the
fact that learning involves more than one cognitive process. In fact, learning is an
umbrella term covering various aspects of perception, comprehension, storage, and
retrieval. Cognitive and neurological research shows that these aspects of learning do not
necessarily share all their sub-processes. For instance, while comprehension may require
simplification and integration of to-be-learned materials with the already existing
schemata, retention may be enhanced by presenting materials within a dissimilar context
or by increasing the amount of cognitive load on the part of learners. For learning to take
place, after all, comprehended materials should be represented and retained in the longterm memory. It is, thus, advisable to consider the findings of research on various aspects
of language processing in developing principles and strategies for language teaching.
The above remarks however, are not meant to deny the impact of factors that fall beyond
the scope of individual on human cognition in terms of both content and processing.
Research, for instance, has shown that cognitive conceptualizations and processes
involved in the production and perception of language may be informed by cultural
systems and practices (e.g., Malcolm & Sharifian, 2002; Sharifian, 2001b). While
individual is the locus of cognition and cognitive activities such as learning, the ultimate
level of representation and processing clearly extends to cognition at the group level.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Maggie Sokolik and the anonymous reviewers for their
helpful suggestions and comments on the earlier drafts of this paper.
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About the Author
Farzad Sharifian, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Language and Literacy
Research and also a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics program at Edith Cowan University, Western
Australia. He has carried out research and published in several areas of psycholinguistics and cognitive
linguistics.