Mnemonics, chunking and mind-mapping: its efficacy in enhancing memory based on the preferred learning styles of the first year undergraduate nursing students

Background: Memory demands for students are much more than they are for working adults. One of the most commonly described problem of students is the inability to retain large volume of academic content. Therefore, it is imperative for all students to have good memory for better academic achievement. The present study attempts to assess the efficacy of mnemonics, chunking and mind-mapping in enhancing memory based on the preferred learning styles of the first year undergraduate nursing students. Aim: The main aim of the study is to assess the learning style of the students and to assess the efficacy of mnemonics, chunking and mind-mapping in enhancing memory of the first year undergraduate nursing students. Design: A descriptive and a pre-experimental one group pre-test and post-test research design was adopted for this study. Sample: A simple random sampling technique was used to fetch a sample of 100. Materials: A Modified Honey-Mumford 40 item learning style questionnaire was used to identify the learning style preferred by the students and a Structured Knowledge Questionnaire was used for assessing the memory of the students. The reliability of Modified Honey-Mumford LSQ was found to be .86 by using Cohen’s kappa Coefficient test and that of Structured Knowledge questionnaire was found to be .96 by using Karl Pearson’s formula. Results: Out of 100 subjects, 30% of the first year undergraduate nursing students preferred activist style, 26% of them preferred the pragmatist style, 23% of them preferred the reflector style and 21% of them preferred the theorist style. In pretest, 25% of the first year undergraduate nursing students had poor memory (score 0-10), 68% of them had average memory (score 11-20) and 7% of them had good memory (Score 21-30). In posttest, 20% of them had average memory (score 11-20) and 80% of them had good memory (Score 21-30). This indicates that the memory of the first year undergraduate nursing students improved remarkably after using mnemonics, chunking and mind-mapping study techniques. Conclusion: This study concludes that mnemonics, chunking and mind-mapping are effective in enhancing the memory of all students irrespective of their learning styles.