The Effect of Brain Hemisphere Dominance on 15-Word Memorization Using the Method of Loci
Rachel M Shroyer · Furman University Scholar Exchange (Furman University) · 2015
The method of loci is a memorization technique that not many people use. It encompasses the memorization of words from a list by imagining each word in a place from a pathway that is very familiar. The first step is recalling locations from a pathway. The second step is to put together these loci with information or words. To recall the information, the individuals must take a mental “walk” through the path. In schools today, a majority of testing is based on the memorization of material. The purpose of this experiment was to help people, especially students, improve with memorization tasks.. It is helpful to know if there are certain memorization techniques that are more useful for certain brain hemisphere dominances. It was hypothesized that if an individual is right-brain dominant, then that individual would memorize more words using the method of loci than an individual who is left-brain dominant. First, the participants took a brain dominance test and were taught about the method of loci. There were two trials, in both they were given a word list and five minutes to use the method of loci. Since the p value was greater than the alpha value, the null hypothesis was not rejected, F(1,23)=0.56, p<0.460. There was no significant memorization difference between left and right brain dominance. However, there was a slight difference suggesting that left brain dominant participants memorize more, using the method of loci, than right brain dominant participants.