LAUSR

Objective Professors generally use less structured and organized methods of teaching than high school teachers, even though undergraduate brains are still developing, making the transition more difficult. The purpose of this study was to see whether undergraduate students could use explicitly taught methods of organization to remember more words on free recall trials of the CVLT-II. Method Inclusion criteria: undergraduate students enrolled at Widener University, between the ages of 18–24. Participants included 34 undergraduate students recruited via mass email. The groups had 18 women and 16 men aged 18–22 (M = 20.32, SD = 1.15). They were randomized evenly in two groups: a control group (standardized instructions) and an experimental group (explicit semantic clustering instruction). Variables used were semantic clustering, immediate and delayed free recall. Results There were strong positive correlations between semantic clustering and number of words recalled at the immediate (r = .76, p < .0005) and delayed free recall trials (r = .7, p < .0005) for both groups. The experimental group (M = 3.94, SD = 3.21) used more semantic clustering than the control group (M = 2.13, SD = 2.35); t(32) = −1.87, p = .04 (one-tailed) (Cohen’s d = .64). However, the experimental group did not freely recall significantly more words than the control group at either of the free recalls (immediate = t(32) = −.636, p = .26; delay = t(32) = −1.086, p = .14). Conclusion This may indicate that although undergraduate students can learn helpful strategies, they may not necessarily be able to implement taught strategies effectively.