Learning scientific and medical terminology with a mnemonic strategy using an illogical association technique

Abstract

For students pursuing careers in medical fields, knowledge of technical and medical terminology is prerequisite to being able to solve problems in their respective disciplines and professions. The Dean Vaughn Medical Terminology 350 Total Retention System, also known as Medical Terminology 350 (25), is a mnemonic instructional and learning strategy that combines mental imagery and keyword mnemonic elaboration processes to help students recall the scientific meaning of Greek and Latin word parts. High school students in Anatomy and Physiology classes at a career technology center were divided into experimental (Medical Terminology 350), control (rote memorization), or combination (Medical Terminology 350 and rote memorization) groups and completed pre- and posttests of standardized word recall tests. Students in the Dean Vaughn Medical Terminology 350 Total Retention System group achieved significantly greater pre- to posttest word recall improvement compared with students in both the rote memorization (P <or= 0.0001) and combined rote memorization and Medical Terminology 350 (P <or= 0.05) groups. There appeared to be a dose-dependent response as the pre- to posttest gain in word recall scores increased as exposure to the treatment increased.

Familiarity with Latin and Greek anatomical terms and course performance in undergraduates

“…Contrary to our expectations and to the suggestions in the primary literature (e.g., Mehta et al, 1996;Lewis, 2004;Wulff, 2004;Lindekleiv, 2005;Sharp, 2005;Smith et al, 2007;Brahler and Walker, 2008)-and contrary to the approach most commonly used in medical terminology courses-we found only a weak association between competence in identifying the Latin and Greek roots of anatomical terms and success in course outcomes. It is important to point out that the r 2 for the lecture sample was only 0.021 and for the survey sample only 0.037.…”

“…Furthermore, many instructors believe that a greater understanding of the derivation of the anatomic terms serves to enhance students' comprehension of the subject matter (Thomas and Steele, 1966;Mehta et al, 1996;Lewis, 2004;Sharp, 2005;Smith et al, 2007;Brahler and Walker, 2008). For example, Woodward-Kron (2008) encapsulates current ideas about the relationship between understanding of Latin and Greek elements of anatomical terminology and successful mastery of content knowledge:…”

The Mnemonic Keyword Method: Effects on the Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention

“…Brahler and Walker (2008) divided their subjects into three groups; the keyword method, rote memorization, and the combination of both. The findings revealed that students in the keyword group could significantly outperform the other two groups in terms of recall.…”

Lexical access, knowledge transfer and meaningful learning of scientific terminology via an etymological approach

“…This study adds to the growing body of literature that demonstrates effective instructor-led learning scaffolds for domain-specific academic language at the University undergraduate level (Drury, et al, 2002;Miller et al, 2002;Smith, et al, 2007;Brahler & Walker, 2008;Lidbury and Zhang, 2008;Snow, 2010;Nagy & Townshend, 2012;Rector, et al, 2013). Future studies will explore the nature of a priori lexical access to Greco-Roman scientific terminology inherent to students hailing from Anglophone vs. Francophone linguistic backgrounds.…”

“…When students are tasked with learning specialized terminology, the most common approach is rote memorization (Pines & West, 1986;Mayer, 2002), sometimes with the use of making cognitive associations, such as using mnemonics or concept maps, which have been shown to improve word retention over rote memorization (Posner, 1996;Briscoe & LaMaster, 1991;Brahler & Walker, 2008). However, only true understanding can lead to long-term memory, retrieval and transfer of that knowledge (Carpenter, 1956;Pines & West, 1986;Wandersee, 1988;Chamot, 2004).…”