Cognitive-Linguistic and Constructivist Mnemonic Triggers in Teaching Based on Jerome Bruner's Thinking

Front Psychol. 2018 Dec 12:9:2543. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02543. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Effective teachers use mnemonic tools or mnemonic triggers to improve the students' retention of the study material. This article discusses mnemonic triggers from a theoretical viewpoint based on Jerome S. Bruner's writings. Fifty small linguistic-cognitive, constructive-, rhetorical-, and phonological-mnemonic triggers are detected. These triggers may become supporting elements for our memory system when we are "constructing the realities" in a Brunerian sense when we are ordering, differentiating, comparing, and handling information, stories and experiences in our mind. Many of these are small, hidden linguistic elements in speech. This article discusses their usage in the educational talk and textbooks.

Keywords: Jerome Bruner; cognitive psychology; constructivist learning theories; educational psychology; mnemonic triggers; mnemonics; teaching.