3 ms·
On the Forgetting of College Academics: At “Ebbinghaus Speed”? [pdf]
- closed 9y agoAs a memory researcher, I'm a bit puzzled by their criticism that for different learning approaches, few studies qualified for studying long term memory (where long term is defined as 2 years). If there is a difference in retention between two groups at 1 week or 1 month, then I would be very surprised if it reversed upon testing 2 years later. Moreover, I'm not sure what the theoretical justification would be for extending the test period from say 1 month to 2 years (not to mention how low reliability probably is at 2 years).
- gwern 9y agoSince their concern is about retention of course degree material, which ostensibly we're spending 4 years and many thousands of dollars learning because it'll be so useful in our careers, the long-term forgetting curve may look different if career demands create repeated rehearsals of learned material. You might forget a bunch of material from your compilers course, but the rest of it becomes periodically useful in your web dev career and the total loss flattens out. Then testing you on the trivia shortly after your compilers course will paint a misleadingly pessimistic picture. This is why they spend all that space wondering about how rehearsal affects connected concepts - how specifically do any of these concepts have to be rehearsed before it counts as a refresh for the spacing effect? Do even vaguely related career demands suffice to draw on and preserve other course material?