Combining the two strategies—the practice of spacing out lessons and repeating them—is the key to learning success and memorize for a long long time, says Shana Carpenter.
Carpenter, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, is the lead author of a study published in Nature Reviews Psychology that reviewed more than 100 years of learning studies.
“The benefits of timed and repetitive practice have been repeatedly confirmed in various studies in labs, classrooms and workplaces, but the reason we are presenting this study is because these two techniques are not fully understood.
If they were used all the time, we would see a drastic increase in learning,” says Carpenter.
In their study, Carpenter and co-authors describe “timed distribution” as a strategy for learning in small doses over time.
It’s the opposite of cramming all the lessons in the night before the exam. In one study, medical students who received surgical training over a three-week period performed better on exams conducted after two weeks and after a year, compared to medical students who received the same training in a single day.
Carpenter says there’s no universal rule for the amount of time that should be scheduled between practice sessions. But research shows that returning to material after forgetting some of the content – but not all – has been shown to be effective.
Learn to memorize in only two ways and share your opinion below in comments.
Repetition practice is a strategy that involves recalling what has been previously learned. This can be practiced in many forms, including questionnaires, practice tests and open-ended questions.
These methods help students distinguish between what they know and what they don’t know. The authors of the research point out that people who check their answers for errors or who receive feedback from others learn better.
More than 200 studies show that people generally remember more information for longer periods of time through repetition practice compared to strategies that do not involve repetition (eg, simply re-reading a textbook).
The authors argue that people who combine the practice of distributed learning over time and repetition have the highest chances of remembering information.
“Forgetting is something very natural; you can’t stop forgetting even if you try, but you can slow down the process by using the practice of time-spacing and repetition,” says Carpenter.
She also adds that there are some misconceptions about learning, which are part of the reason why these two practices are not widely used.
“Perhaps the biggest misconception is that learning something has to seem like an easy process in order to work, but that’s not true at all. You will learn more consistently and effectively if you persevere and push through those tough challenges over time,” says Carpenter.
For example, underlining or re-reading a textbook seems easier than writing answers to various questions related to the content of the learning material. But without the knowledge control that comes with trying to reproduce learned information, there is a greater risk of falling into what the authors call the “illusion of learning.”
Carpenter admits that many people don’t like making mistakes or discovering that they don’t understand the material as well as they thought. This can bring up insecurity, fear of failure, or other emotions they want to avoid.
But chances are they will have to face what they don’t know during an even more important moment, such as during an exam or during a job presentation.
Don’t forget to share this article with your friends, family, or someone important and let me know more on comments below.
Whether used by teachers or students, memory strategies, such as elaboration, mental imagery, mnemonics, organization, and rehearsal, are helpful in remembering information.