| The purpose of this study was to determine if the Superlearning method would produce hypermnesia in learning rare English words. The subjects were 189 sophomore and junior education majors. Subjects were randomly assigned by class section to either the control group or to one of four treatment groups. All groups received pre- and post- tests. The control group, which consisted of two class sections, learned the words by using any method of their own choosing. They were tested for retention after one, two, and four weeks. One treatment group, also comprised of two class sections, was tested one, two, and four weeks after treatment. Each of the other treatment groups was tested only once at one, two, or four weeks after treatment. The same matching test was used as a pre-, post-, and retention test. An analysis of covariance, which removed the effects of the post test scores, showed that the control group performed significantly (p < .05) better, on all of the retention tests, than any of the treatment groups. Reasons for these results are offered and recommendations are proposed. |
