| The purpose of the study was to determine if there is an effect on retention of vocabulary when music and imagery are used to accelerate learning. As background for the study four brain functioning theories as developed from recent neuroscientific research were explored. These were the theory of right/left cerebral dominance (Sperry & others), triune brain theory (MacLean), taxon and locale long term memory (O'Keefe & Nadel), and holographic memory (Pribram). These four theories all suggest multiple channels of input will increase information retention. In Bulgaria, Georgi Lozanov incorporated components of these theories into a learning strategy. In this country, Schuster studied components of Lozanov's techniques and the present study reinforces some of Schuster's findings. The research utilized three conditions: an experimental condition of music plus imagery, an experimental condition of music only, and a no treatment condition. The study was conducted at North Texas State University using subjects from the School of Library and Information Sciences. A quasi-experimental design was employed. All subjects received a pretest of vocabulary words identical to the posttest and a list of the defined words to study. Additionally, all subjects responded to an affective attitude rating instrument. Subjects in the music plus imagery group heard Handel's Water Music and the experimenter read aloud the words. Subjects in the music only condition heard the same music. Control group subjects did not hear music or the words read aloud. Analysis of covariance revealed a significant difference on the immediate criterion test for the music only condition. On the delayed criterion test, analysis of variance revealed a significant difference for each of the experimental conditions over the control group. A Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed the affective rating to be positively correlated with the immediate criterion test. It was suggested that brain functioning theories be incorporated into teacher education programs. |
