Spacing Effect, Memory, and Online Learning

Have you ever heard of the spacing effect as related to memory and learning new information? Discovered by Ebbinghaus in the late 1800′s, it’s “one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning,” the psychologist Frank Dempster wrote in 1988, (American Psychologist “The Spacing Effect: A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research.”). Yet, it’s almost universally ignored.

Basically, the idea is that forgetting something that has been memorized occurs at a predictable rate and that if reminders are properly spaced, over a period of time, then forgetting can be averted even as reminders are phased out after about 4 instances. Pretty cool, huh?

So, I’m reading this article from Wired Magazine (online of course) and it’s nice: Want To Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Well, it got me thinking about the benefits of the spread-out nature of much online learning. For example, if we have an 8 hour workshop to deliver, I think that it would be much more effective if it were spaced out over 2-6 weeks rather than all attempted in one day. One reason is the spacing effect. In the online class, you would have the opportunity to review and revisit periodically over time, whereas in the one day workshop, you would just rush through the experiences and/or information.

In the article, Gary Wolf writes about Piotr Wozniack and his SuperMemo software that is supposed to help people remember new information by using an algorithm to provide timely reminders until, ostensibly, the new information is stored in the long term memory. Here’s an image from the article that illustrates the timing of the reminders on the curve of forgetting. I like how that sounds, “The curve of forgetting.” It would be a good title for a book or poem. Anyway, here’s the graphic:

from Wired Magazine

What do you think?