EFFECTS OF MNEMONIC INSTRUCTION AND LIST LENGTH ON SERIAL LEARNING AND RETENTION

Subjects with and without mnemonic instructions learned lists of either 10 or 16 nouns by the anticipation method over four trials. Six weeks later they relearned the lists. Mnemonic instructions facilitated both learning and relearning, but the relearning effect may have depended on the learning effect. The longer lists were more difficult for both mnemonic and control Ss to learn, but there was no clear difference on relearning. Mnemonic instructions were associated with flattening of the serial-position error curves on both learning and relearning, and with differences in the types of error made by the Ss. © 1969, Psychonomic Journals, Inc.. All rights reserved.