EFFECT OF MEANINGFULNESS ON RETENTION

EXPERIMENT NO. 1
DATE: __________

PROBLEM:
To compare the speed and retention of learning meaningful and non-meaningful words.

BASIC CONCEPT:
Learning is a process of acquisition of knowledge. Basically, learning can be defined as a
process by which experience or practice results in a relatively permanent change in behaviour
or potential behaviour (Morris & Matsto, 1999).
According to Powell, Symbaluk and Macdonald (2002), learning is defined as a relatively
permanent change that results from some type of experience.
Similarly, Ormrod (1999) defined learning as the means through which skills, knowledge,
values, attitudes, and emotional reactions are acquired. He added that learning deals with
relatively permanent change in behaviour and mental associations due to experience.
There are many types of learning styles which are used in gaining information and
knowledge. One of them is meaningful learning. Meaningful learning is a process in which
people find meaning in the new information by relating that information to the knowledge
already stored in their long-term memory (Ormrod, 1999). On the other hand, meaningful
learning is sometimes referred to as external organization as it allows new information to be
organized with previously learned information (Houston, 1991).
Meaningful learning is frequently used in studying the effective way of learning. The task is
designed to study the acquisition of meaningful items. This research has been proposed and
conducted by a German psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus (1913). He found that the
association he made with the words helped him to learn those words (Ormrod, 1999).
According to Anonbel (1998) and Mayer (1996), we learn information meaningfully by
storing it in long-term memory in association with similar and related pieces of information.
The process goes by relating new information to knowledge already stored in long-term
memory and find meaning in that information.
Verbal learning researchers alternatively discovered that the characteristics of material
influence and facilitate the process of learning. They found that items are more quickly
learned when they are meaningful because they can be easily associated with other ideas
(Salvin, 1994; Cofer, 1991; Pavio, 1971). Ormand (1991) also suggested the exact idea
earlier.
These ideas supported the works and principles discovered and proposed by Ebbinghaus.
When learning new information, individuals impose meaning. According to Ormrod (1999),
the effect of meaningfulness of the items on learning can be explained from an S-R
perspective. When a stimulus word has many other words associated with it, one of the
associations may in turn be associated with the response to be learned. These associations
facilitate individuals in learning and memorizing the words.

HYPOTHESIS:
The speed and retention of learning would be better in the case of meaningful words as
compared to non-meaningful words.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
 List of 10 meaningful words
 List of 10 non-meaningful words
 Pen or Pencil

PRELIMINARIES
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Educational Qualification:

RAPPORT FORMATION:
The subject was made to feel comfortable by engaging in informal conversation for a few
minutes. This was done in order to make the subject feel at ease during the experiment. After
a friendly atmosphere was created, the subject was given instructions.

INTROSPECTIVE REPORT
(ask and record the experience of the subject)

BEHAVIOURAL REPORT
(record the subject’s behaviour based on your observation)
PROCEDURE
Two lists of words were prepared. One was of meaningful words and the other for non-
meaningful words. The subject was presented with the meaningful words first followed by
the non-meaningful words.

INSTRUCTIONS
You will be shown two lists of words one by one after which you have to recall as many
words as you can. Once you recall all the words, we stop.

DISCUSSION
The aim of the experiment was to compare the speed of retention of learning meaningful
words.
The subject was ____________, a __________ year old girl/boy studying in _______
standard.
It was hypothesized that the speed of retention of learning would be better in the case of
meaningful words as compared to non-meaningful words.
The subject was able to recall meaningful words in _____ trials and the non-meaningful
words in ______ trials.

CONCLUSION
From the above result it can be noted that the subject recalled the meaningful words better.
Thus, it can be said that our hypothesis is accepted.
Our hypothesis that the speed and retention of learning would be better in case of meaningful
words better than the non-meaningful words is accepted.

REFERENCES
 Introduction to Experimental Psychology
 Introduction to Psychology
  LIST OF MEANINGFUL WORDS

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7

MAT
PEN
BOW
MAN
MAD
PEG
PET
UFO
DEN
NET

 LIST OF NON-MEANINGFUL WORDS

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7

NUF
POL
TAM
GAT
FUW
MIF
BEC
XUL
LUS
TOR