Elaboration Strategy

Students are usually able to encode target information faster and remember it longer when they associate it with elaboration information than when they do not. They remember it better because the associated elaboration information functions as a "retrieval cue" [1] for the target information, a sort of "memory hook" of "memory peg" [2] on which the target information is hung.

SUMMARY GUIDELINES FOR USING AN ELABORATION STRATEGY

STEP ONE: ENCODE TARGET AND ELABORATION INFORMATION

Tell or show students the target information and elaboration information and help them tell or show it back. Provide guidance.

ELABORATION TASK

Help students identify the target information and elaboration information and practice encoding the elaborated target information. Use one of three types of elaborative information with the target information.

1. Images

Use an elaboration that consists of sensory experiences, such as visual, auditory, olfactory, touch, kinesthesis, temperature, or any combination of these.

2. Episodes

Use an elaboration that consists of stories, of narratives. Personal experiences are usually most effective.

3. Mnemonics

Use an elaboration that consists of images and/or words that have been specially designed to help students retrieve the target information later.

ELABORATION GUIDANCE

While students are performing elaboration tasks, focus their attention on the target and elaboration information.

STEP TWO: PRACTICE RETRIEVING TARGET INFORMATION

Have all students retrieve the target information from long-term memory without the elaboration being present. Provide guidance.

RECALL-PRACTICE TASK

Use activities that require all students to retrieve the target information frequently and by itself, without the elaboration.

RECALL-PRACTICE GUIDANCE

During and after all students perform recall-practice tasks; confirm their adequate retrieval of the target information, and correct their inadequate retrieval. Vary the explicitness of guidance. When they are unable to retrieve the target information from memory, provide explicit guidance that is intended to help them retrieve the elaboration, and then use it to cue retrieval of the target information.

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1. Tulving, E. (1974). Cue-dependent forgetting. American Scientist, 62, 74-82.

2. Paivio, A. (1986). Dual coding and episodic memory: Subjective and objective sources of memory trace components. In. F. Flix & H. Hafgendolrf, (Eds.), Human memory and cognitive abilities: Mechanisms and performance (Part A, pp. 225-236). Amsterdam: North-Holland.