Interactive digital mnemonics accelerate lexical retrieval and enhance long-term vocabulary retention in adolescent EFL learners

This study examines how interactive digital mnemonics reshape the temporal dynamics of associative retrieval during foreign-language vocabulary acquisition among adolescent learners. A quasi-experimental design compared an adaptive digital learning environment with conventional paper-based methods in a sample of 102 middle-school students (aged 12–14), assigned at the intact-class level to an experimental group ( n = 51) and a control group ( n = 51). Participants studied 45 health- and sport-related English lexical items. A computerized lexical decision task programmed in PsychoPy measured reaction time (RT) in milliseconds and response accuracy across three phases: baseline pre-test (T0), immediate post-test (T1), and four-week delayed post-test (T2). The experimental group exhibited a statistically significant reduction in RT latencies at T1 [M = 942 ms vs. 1,520 ms; F(2, 200) = 84.30, p < 0.001, η ² p = 0.46] and maintained faster retrieval at T2 (1,055 ms vs. 1,710 ms). Accuracy at T2 remained substantially higher in the experimental cohort (81.5% vs. 54.1%), indicating greater retention resilience. These findings provide behavioral evidence that the integrated digital mnemonic package was associated with faster associative retrieval and more durable L2 vocabulary retention. Because cognitive load was not measured directly, the results are interpreted as evidence of improved retrieval efficiency rather than as direct confirmation of reduced extraneous load.