By Calvin, Science and Environment Editor
Dr Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who instigated the remarkable study of memory. He is known famously for his writings on the Forgetting Curve as well as the Learning Curve referring to how fast one learns new concepts.
Ebbinghaus’ theory suggests we learn and forget things exponentially due to the graphing of his results. Using this, he developed a formula for how long we can retain things in our memory. His studies show that the sharpest decline usually happens in the first 20 minutes after coming face to face with something new and will continue to decay significantly through the few first hours that follows. Finally, the curve would level off after a day.
However, there are ways to combat the Forgetting Curves. One way is to repeat something over and over again. When we repeat something frequently, the more chance it is likely going to stick. Research does show reviewing something over and over again at regular intervals does increase overall retention. Another method to long-term retention is to focus on the quality of the information and its meaning to you. This means you might be able to remember the things you already know through the use of meaningful connections such as an object. This will mean that your memory retention would be higher.
Tricks can also help with retaining information such as memory devices like mnemonics which can help learners recall larger pieces of information. Acronyms, acrostics and chunking are some of the best examples. This is probably one of the single most brilliant investigation in the history of psychology as it allows other people to recognise and to change their approach in learning new ideas.