Effects of a mnemonic-imagery strategy on students' prose recall

Twelve-year-old students read several passages about the accomplishments of famous people. Students in the mnemonic-imagery condition were taught a systematic strategy to apply to the passages they read, whereas the control students were given no strate gy and were left to their own devices. Consistent with previous findings, mnemonic-imagery students remembered more name/accomplishment information than the control students. Individual differences in short-term memory, verbal and visual competence did not predict performance in the imagery condition. Thus, imagery instruction with children of different ability levels was effective for short-term memory, verbal and visual competence.