Mnemotechnics: Some limitations of the mnemonic keyword method for the study of foreign language vocabulary

The effectiveness of the mnemonic keyword method was examined in four experiments with college students learning lists of 24-32 pairs of Spanish nouns and their English equivalents. The first three experiments, in which the lists were presented for periods of free study, yielding the following results: (a) The keyword condition, with keywords supplied by the experimenter, was similar or somewhat inferior to the control conditions both in the SpanishEnglish (forward) and in the English-Spanish (backward) direction; (b) the keyword condition was clearly inferior to controls when students were required to generate keywords; (c) keyword and control conditions were similar in retention over 1 week. In Experiment 4 the keyword method was superior to the control condition with successive, experimenter-paced presentation but inferior with free-study presentation; free study was markedly superior to paced presentation for both keyword and control conditions. Implications for the further study and application of the keyword method, and mnemotechnics more generally, are discussed.