Spaced Repetition
16 articles on Spaced Repetition.
Little and often – the thought behind Spaced Repetition
Many people think that the teaching technique known as spaced repetition, which has gained more and more traction over recent years with language learning apps was developed quite recently. However, spaced repetition can trace its roots all the way back to 1885, when German psychologist, and prominent thinker around memory and recall, Hermann Ebbinghaus, published an experimental study about memory called Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. The central element of this work was the forgetting curve, which refers to the decline of us being able to remember pieces of information over time, when there is no attempt to retain them. The two things we are most interested in when it comes to learning, are retention and recall. But we should think differently of how to improve our powers in that regard. How to absorb, retain and recall better. Simply put, how to learn better. In order to drill new information or knowledge into our brain, we don’t need to cram for hours on end the night before a test or listen intently to a daylong training course. As a matter of fact, these approaches to learning will probably have the opposite effect. Along with the tedious and repetitive nature
The art of bite-sized learning
Astonishing and incredible yet irregular and unpredictable at the same time, the human memory is a funny thing. Some pieces of information are readily available and can be plucked from the front of your brain at a moment’s notice. However, other facts or figures are buried deep within the recesses of your mind, which might be recalled after a few minutes or later on that day at random. Simple questions such as ‘where are your keys right now?’ sound easy, but it might take a little bit of thought to remember when you had them last and their current location. Even so, the complicated and complex nature of memory is often forgotten about when it comes to learning. This is despite the fact that if classroom teachers and corporate trainers consider how the brain acquires new knowledge, they will benefit from better learners and stronger outcomes. The secret is bite-sized learning… The shortcomings of memory In their paper The “Change-up” in Lectures, Joan Middendorf and Alan Kalish observed a polarity between the way lectures were being taught and how students learnt. “Research tells us that the traditional lecture does not match what current cognitive science tells us of how humans
The science behind spaced repetition
In order to drill new information or knowledge into your brain, you do not need to cram for hours on end the night before a test or listen intently to a daylong training course. As a matter of fact, these approaches to learning will probably have the opposite effect. Along with the tedious and repetitive nature of reading a textbook or listening to a classroom teacher, traditional techniques used for learning are extremely ineffective too. Basic neuroscience and psychology research says that they are misaligned with how our brains actually absorb new information or knowledge and do not help with retention or recollection. Instead, studies into the subject suggest that with techniques such as spaced repetition, you are much more likely to embed new information or knowledge into your long-term memory. But what is the science behind spaced repetition? And how can you use spaced repetition for the purposes of information and knowledge retention and recollection? The basics of spaced repetition Spaced repetition can trace its roots all the way back to 1885, when German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus published an experimental study about memory called Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. The main aspect of his work was the forgetting
Ebbinghaus and the forgetting curve
You might think that the teaching technique known as spaced repetition, which has gained more and more traction over the past few years with language learning apps and our very own solution here at Wranx, was developed quite recently. However, it can trace its routes back over a century thanks to the work of Hermann Ebbinghaus. This German psychologist, who pioneered the experimental study of memory, first identified the spacing effect phenomenon in his 1885 book Über das Gedächtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie (Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology). Along with his research into spaced repetition, Ebbinghaus also discovered the forgetting curve, a hypothesis that looked at the decline of memory retention over time. But what do you need to know about Ebbinghaus and the forgetting curve? Ebbinghaus’ memory experimentations As opposed to the popular held thought at the time, Ebbinghaus wanted to show that higher mental processes could be studied through experimentation. He wanted to use simple acoustic encoding and maintenance rehearsal to control potentially confounding variables. However, Ebbinghaus needed a list of words that could be easily memorized but which had no prior cognitive associations, as this would affect his results. Therefore, he used items that would later
Reading about it is the easy part
See what daily retrieval practice looks like running on your own training content.