Have you ever spent a long time studying for a test only to forget the material a month later? I have. All the time. In fact, there are subjects I’ve taken multiple times, even ones I’ve tutored, where I still need a textbook handy to recall basic concepts. So what’s the point of studying then if we forget so quickly? How can we make learning stick?
It turns out that even if we can’t remember material we’ve studied on demand, we can relearn that material much faster the next time we study it.
Studies in Relearning
In a classic study, psychologist H.E. Burtt had his son memorize bits of a Greek drama at different intervals until he was three years old. When his son was 8, he tested again him on the passages. Although his son had no memory of learning the drama, he relearned the Greek passages he studied as a child about 25% faster compared to new Greek passages. He relearned the passages again 10% faster at the age of 14. Only when he was 18 did the effect dissipate.
Although Burtt’s son couldn’t readily recall what he had learned as a three year old, the study suggests that there were still substantial remnants what he had learned in his brain years later.
More studies have strengthened Burtt’s original findings.
One study tested how fast different age groups could relearn random pairs of pictures after two weeks. Participants relearned studied picture pairs 18%-55% faster than new ones.
And these studies only tested memory of trivial information, like random pictures or words of languages the participants never used. Since we more easily remember things that are connected to other things in our brain, we likely relearn information we studied in school even faster than these studies suggest. You may not recall particular details about World War II from history class, but the fact that you can tie that information to real-world people, places, and cultural references means your brain will probably have an even easier time accessing that information the next time you need it.
How to Make Learning Stick
Is there a way to help us not forget what we learned in the first place?
Science suggests that relearning material over spaced intervals is a good strategy to make learning stick. In psychology, this phenomenon is called the spacing effect. Increasing the time between study intervals increases long-term recall.
In one study, for example, participants learned words in a different language. They then practiced, or “relearned”, groups of those words at different time intervals to determine how the time between practice sessions affected long-term recall. Some groups of words they practiced every 14 days; others they practiced 28 days; and finally, the last group of words they only practiced every 56 days. They practiced 13 times for each group.
It took the participants longer to relearn the words at each practice session for the practice intervals that were every 56 days. And yet, the 56-day practice intervals increased long-term memory the most. Over a 1-5 year period, participants remembered 10-20% more of the words they practiced every 56 days compared to the 14-day practice interval. The effect increased the more years they waited to retest the participants.
Long-Term Learning Takes Time
A few years ago, my brother took an accounting class in college. As a game, he’d often quiz my dad, a Certified Public Accountant, to see how much he remembered about the subject.
A lot of the questions my brother asked were detailed and about stuff my dad didn’t use at work. Surprisingly, my dad would readily answer my brother’s questions with a mastery that made my brother and I both chuckle in amazement.
I thought that either my dad’s local college professor from 40 years ago was REALLY good or my dad seriously over prepared for his CPA examination he took when I was a kid.
What I’ve noticed since then, however, is that my dad is forced to earn credits to keep his CPA license, which he does every year with a certain exasperated annoyance.
Given the principles spacing effect though, I imagine that the combination of studying accounting in college, again for his CPA license years later, and then further on a recurring basis to keep his license has made all that learning stick. And that effect is only enhanced by the fact that he can easily connect that learned information to other accounting knowledge he uses for his job every day.
So if you are looking to gain the same mastery and ready recall as an experienced subject-matter expert like my dad, understand that it takes time. Although it’s tiring, the more you relearn the same thing over the years, the more likely it is to stick. In fact, intentionally spacing out how often you study or relearn something, while more work upfront, is the best way to hang on to that information in the long run.
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