| This study evaluated the effectiveness of employing mental imagery to enhance recall while learning new vocabulary words. Following the work of Smith, Stahl and Neil (1987), three groups of 20 undergraduate students were assigned to one of three conditions: Definition Only, Definition + Sentence, and Definition + Sentence + Image. Students in the first group were exposed to 30 undergraduate-level vocabulary words and their definitions, students in the second group studied sentences illustrating the words in addition to the words and their definitions, while students in the third group created mental images of the words after viewing the words, their definitions and the sentences. The recall rates of concrete versus abstract words also were investigated, as was the correlation between superior imaging ability and recall rates. The results showed that subjects who created mental images of the vocabulary words remembered more words immediately post-exposure, but not one week later. Results also showed that subjects in all three treatment groups remembered more concrete words than abstract words immediately post-exposure and one week later. In addition, analyses showed a correlation between "higher" imaging ability and the recall of concrete words. The findings of this study suggest that integrating mental imagery techniques into vocabulary instruction could increase immediate recall. |
