Increasing Retention without Increasing Study Time
Humans are prone to forget. Pupils at schools and students at college and universities learn a lot of information. Unfortunately, the majority of them cannot remember it in a year or more. The researches Dough Rodher and Harold Pashler try to identify what factors influence humans’ retention and how to make it better and longer. Scientists identified that the common for contemporary educational system overlearning and rare repetition of the material are the main reasons of such dramatic statistics of forgetting. Shuffled formula of teaching and spacing of the learned material should be implemented in education practice to improve long-term retention, as they are much more effective than the currently used overlearning and mass learning methods, which demonstrate results only for the short-term knowledge.
Rohrer and Pashlers Discoveries
Dough Rodher and Harold Pashler (2007) are concerned by how quickly students forget the materials perfectly memorized for the exam. The researchers studied the correlation between the common for modern learners overlearning practice and long-term retention. They listed pros and cons of mass and space learning to help solve the problem. In conclusion of their study the scientists emphasize that contemporary educational practice is based on tradition and fads when it should consider empirical evidence more (Rohrer & Pashler, 2007, p. 186). The reason for such statement is proved by their research, which indicates that the common educational practice is useless for long-term retention, which is vital for true professionals. The researchers present an alternative to the existing teaching method, which involves shuffled and spaced format of the lectures.
Correlation between Retention and Overlearning
While learning a lot of students forget many things almost at once. Studies show dramatic results – 4 weeks after getting high test scores the retention decreases almost by half (Rohrer & Pashler, 2007, p. 185). In the end, 50 % of educated adults cannot remember where Sudan is located and cannot correctly multiply 5 by 7 (Rohrer & Pashler, 2007, p. 183). The reason for such tendency lies in overlearning. It is a process of continuation of study even when a student has achieved an error-free performance. Adequate students learn the material to the first error-free performance, when overleaners prefer to repeat the already learned information without breaks repeatedly. Especially often contemporary students use the overlearning method during last-minute cramming for an exam (Winerman, 2011). Errors can lower their grade, so, to be on the safe side, they repeat the material again and again. Such method is probably OK for doing well on an exam, but it is horrible for long-term retention (Winerman, 2011). Unfortunately, the knowledge gained in such a way is short-lived and demonstrates great retention decline even after a week.
Studying process is not about memory training. It is about gathering the information and gaining the skills to use it in the future. Art Markman (2012) underlines that people invest several years and thousands of dollars in a college education. Thus, retention, not high test scores, which give no further knowledge of the material, should be the goal. While overlearning is effective for tomorrows test or exam, it is useless for long-term retention. Lea Winerman (2011) writes that the more time students have before the next study session, the more efficiency they demonstrate. If re