The participants were tested within five minutes of learning the word pairs. The use of visual imagery resulted in higher recall of the words but resulted in slower initial retrieval of the word pairs. .
Kliegal, Smith, and Baltes (1989) also tested the use of mnemonic strategy on word retrieval. They tested young and old adults to see if the use of mnemonics would improve cognitive ability. The participants took a pretest on word recall then participated in twenty individual and six standard training sessions. The training sessions consisted of three tasks. The first task was that of acquisition of the method of loci on serial word recall of concrete nouns. The second was the acquisition of one hundred historical events and their associated dates. The third was to transfer the concrete nouns from the method of loci to historical events. The participants were expected to remember up to forty names and locations in West Berlin, Germany. They fond that training in the method of loci produced a significant improvement on serial word recall.
Foth (1973) also questioned the effect of mnemonic strategies on recall. They examined the effectiveness of mnemonic techniques for learning words that were abstract and whether or not imagery mediation is necessary for mnemonic technique effectiveness. Eight groups of participants were given a training session which provided instruction in one of for mnemonic techniques. The mnemonic technique used was paired with imagery mediators or verbal type mediators. The four mnemonic techniques used are as follows: (a) number-rhyme word mnemonic with imagery mediator, (b) number-rhyme word mnemonic with verbal type mediator, (c) number letter identity word mnemonic with imagery mediation, and (d) number location word mnemonic with imagery mediation. Two non-instructed groups served as controls. The participants were asked to learn five ten-item lists of either concrete or abstract nouns.
