Bibliography | Krauss, David: Gedächtnisunterstützung durch digitale Assoziationsketten. University of Stuttgart, Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology, Bachelor Thesis No. 96 (2014). 49 pages, german.
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Abstract | This work deals with different methods of learning and their backgounds. One of the oldest methods - the method of loci - was chosen because of its evident advantages and it will be closely analyzed within this paper. As the effectiveness of this method is very high, it is often used at memory competitions. The intention behind this paper is, to find out, whether the method of loci can be useful for people, who do not take part in memory contests. For this reason, a mobile application was developed, which helps people to use the method. The scenario of use is an everyday task: reading an article on a mobile device.With the Android executable prototype, the user shares interesting facts with the application and places them into their personal memory palace. The palace is recorded with the smartphone’s camera and arranged using small container icons, containing content, such as appointments, vocabulary, facts, etc. In order to prevent the user from naturally forgetting, a quiz has been added to the application, that repeats content in an adjustable schedule. The quiz - as an element of gamification - may be extended as required, in order to increase fun and the degree of binding the user to the application. Within user study, that was conducted with the prototype, 12 test persons created and arranged their custom memory palace. After a short period of distraction, the test persons were retested to find out how much information they were able to remember. In addition to the result, the usability and the mental load were determined. In this way, the prototype is directly compared to the traditional method of loci, which is used mentally only. After the evaluation, the differences of both methods were quantified and backed by user statements. In conclusion, the functionality of the method is given in both versions. The further advantages of the digital method are the use of mobile technology and the numerous possibilities for extension, which the traditional method cannot provide. At the end of the paper, some of these possible extensions are named and explained.
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