Research reports

Use of headings, overviews and summaries

Headings are mainly useful as triggers of information already known.
Wilhite, 1989

Headings, overviews and topical summaries appear to be equally effective in providing an organizational structure that increases recall of the emphasized information. To be effective in improving recall, the organizational structure also needs to be used as a cue for remembering.
Lorch & Lorch 1995

Organizational signals such as headings and summaries produce better remembering of the structure and main ideas of the text, but poorer remembering of the details of the text.
Lorch, Lorch, & Inman 1993

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Use of outlines, graphic organizers and multimedia summaries

Prepared outline structures are helpful for students in organising lecture material. When appropriate, writing notes in a matrix format may be of particular assistance in helping the student develop a coherent overview of the subject.
Benton, Kiewra, Whitfill & Dennison 1993

For passages longer than 2500 words, where time is sufficient to allow study, graphic representations of outline notes are helpful in allowing the student to make connections between ideas. Building connections helps make information more easily remembered for longer.
Robinson & Kiewra 1995

Scientific cause-and-effect explanations are best taught by means of a summary that uses pictures with a small amount of integrated, explanatory text.
Mayer, Bove, Bryman, Mars & Tapangco 1996

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Use of advance organizers

Advance organizers can be an effective aid to learning but many students don't know how to use them effectively.
Kloster & Winne 1989

Advance organizers are more effective if there is a delay between reading the advance organizer and reading the text.
Glover, Bullock & Dietzer 1990

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Using elaborative interrogation

Elaborative interrogation is as effective as an analogy in helping students understand new scientific concepts, and superior for improving recall of the facts.
McDaniel & Donnelly 1996

Elaborative interrogation is more effective when the questions confirm the facts to be remembered, rather than calling them into question.
Martin & Pressley 1991

Where students have little relevant prior knowledge, the use of an imagery mnemonic is a greater aid to remembering than use of the elaborative interrogation strategy.
Willoughby, Wood & Khan 1994

Appropriate use of elaborative interrogation can enhance remembering by connecting new information with existing knowledge that is consistent with the new information.
Woloshyn, Paivio & Pressley 1994

Verbal rehearsal of information is more likely to be effective when the rehearsed information includes information not explicitly stated in the text.
Simpson, Olejnik, Tan & Supattathum 1994

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Using mnemonics

Using a pictorial mnemonic to remember taxonomic information resulted in better long-term recall than use of standard strategies.
Rosenheck, Levin & Levin 1989

also see Willoughby, Wood & Khan 1994

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Use of learning strategies (general)

It will be easier for you to remember the specific details you targeted in your questions if you thought the questions up yourself, but it won't necessarily help you recall the study material in general any better than if you used another person's questions or notes.
Foos, Mora & Tkacz 1994

Repeating a lecture may be of value for recording information other than the most important.
Kiewra, Mayer, Christensen, Kim, & Risch 1991

Better students, and more confident students, use more learning strategies.
Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons 1990