The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting CurveThe Ebbinghaus forgetting curve charts memory retention over time. There is an initial steep decline followed by a more gradual decline of the residual information over time. The forgetting curve shows how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it.The curve is similar to an exponential decay curve with a half life of less than 1 hour. That means an hour after you have learnt something, if you do not re-inforce your learning, you will have forgotten about 50% of what you learnt.

Spaced learning minimises the forgetting curve. Learning small quantities often is preferable to learning a large volume of information in one sitting. In today`s information age, how you learn is arguably more important that what you learn as learning strategies can be applied across a range of subjects. It`s often the case that people who excel tend to excel in all the subjects they take. Sometimes, these students have accidentally stumbled on the best learning practices. Other students are highly reflective and have used a positive feedback loop to select the best method of learning. In other words, they do more of what works, and stop doing things that are unproductive. An experienced tutor knows what works and can greatly reduce the time spent by students going down fruitless avenues.