Language
Country/Area
No result found
The best learning strategy: Why short-term practice makes you remember better?
In modern education and learning environment, how to improve learning outcomes has become an important research topic. Based on research in the field of psychology, distributed practice (distributed repetition, spacing effect, or spread practice) is considered an effective learning strategy. This method emphasizes spreading the practice time over a longer period of time rather than concentrating all learning content in a short period of time at once. This phenomenon is called the spacing effect.
Humans and other animals learn items from a list more efficiently if they spread the learning over multiple sessions.
Research shows that distributed practice is significantly more effective than massed learning, as opposed to short, extended practice. Taking exams as an example, spreading your study over several days will help you retain more information than cramming right before the exam.
Historical BackgroundThe concept of distributed learning was first discovered by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. He conducted self-experiments on the memory of nonsense syllables and discovered the benefits of spaced learning. Over time, more research has confirmed this. For example, a 1978 study by Aaron Baddeley and Longman demonstrated that postmen learned to type better through distributed practice than through massed practice.
Methodology
A variety of psychological functions are responsible for the benefits of distributed practice, the most common of which include procedural learning, priming effects, and extended recall.
Program learning
Procedural learning is the integration of related neural systems through repetition of complex activities. Spreading out practice is the best way to perform procedural learning. By evenly distributing practice over a longer period of time, you will effectively improve your ability to learn the skill.
The Heuristic Effect
Priming occurs when a brief initial exposure to a stimulus influences subsequent recall or cognition. As the number of learning times increases, the enhancement of the inspiration effect will help to recall more information, thereby improving learning efficiency.
Extended Memory
Extended recall refers to a study schedule in which the delay in testing items increases gradually after the initial test. This phenomenon relies on the strengthening of memory to improve learning efficiency. Distributed practice is an effective influence on expanding recall and can strengthen memory consolidation.
Theoretical explanation
Different theories have been proposed to explain the spacing effect in free recall and cued memory tasks. Robert Greene proposed a two-factor theory of the spacing effect, which holds that distributed learning can facilitate memory retrieval. In addition, there are studies demonstrating the effectiveness of semantic analysis and elicitation in cued memory tasks.
Practical Application
The effect of distributed practice has been applied in many fields, including advertising. For example, a strategy of running the same ad continuously is not effective, whereas running different versions of the ad separately will be more impactful. Additionally, for individuals with memory impairment, distributed practice can help them better master new skills.
Long-term memory retention
Although there are few studies on the spacing effect in long-term memory retention, existing studies have found that extended learning intervals have a significant effect on the persistence of newly learned foreign vocabulary. This finding has important implications for educational practice. Great significance.Learning System
Distributed learning is widely used in many learning methods, such as the Pimsleur method and the Leitner system, which use the principle of spaced repetition to improve learning outcomes.
The biological basis of memory
The biological basis of learning mainly involves the formation of memory, especially in terms of semantic knowledge, and the hippocampus and its surrounding entorhinal cortex play an important role in learning. Empirical studies have shown that although some patients can still make some progress despite damage to the hippocampus, their overall effectiveness is limited.
In summary, distributed practice is an important strategy to improve learning outcomes. Whether in education, advertising, or even memory reconstruction for clinical patients, this method is worth learning from. However, facing future learning challenges, can we find more effective ways to apply distributed practice to promote deeper memory?
