In 2011, the researcher conducted a pilot study to investigate the relationship
between classroom games and vocabulary. Results of this study indicate that using games
in the classroom increased gifted students’ learning of vocabulary definitions both in the
short term, 5 weeks, and in the long term, 3 months. When learning new skills, the brain
transfers the learning from short-term memory, the encoding of the initial memory, to
long-term memory. As working memory is becoming a long-term memory, synapses
make the connections in the brain that create long-term memories. Repetition and
motivation are two behaviors that help create long-term memories (Mastin, 2010) and
were two elements present in the pilot study.