By: Natallie Tobuk
Thinking back to my time as a freshman in college, I think that my advice to myself would be to rethink how I study for tests. I think that cramming for a test can be successful on occasion but doing it all the time will make your life more stressful than it needs to be. Procrastination was a method that I relied on throughout high school for assignments and even studying for tests and exams. Now that I have been in college for three years, I know that though I am a busy person, it is not effective and causes a lot of unnecessary stress. By rethinking how you study, you too can save yourself a lot of stressful nights and mornings by using the spacing effect to make your study sessions more effective.
What is the Spacing Effect?
The spacing effect is a phenomenon that shows that information retention is improved when learning sessions are short, repetitive, and spread out. The spacing effect is one of the most research memory phenomena according to research. Research also shows that smaller and spread-out study sessions are more effective than one large and very intense study session. It also has shown that you will be able to hold onto this learned information for a longer time compared to the information that you “learn” during a cramming session (Walsh). They say that when study sessions are spaced out instead of crammed into one marathon session, you are more likely to remember the information (Bjork). These repeated sessions will help to transfer this information into your long-term memory, which is a more efficient source for recalling information.
How Can You Use the Spacing Effect?
Not only does the spacing effect help you with information retention, but it can also help to simplify complex concepts in educational settings (Vlach). Vlach’s research shows that even with children, spaced practice and the spacing effect were able to help break down complex concepts and make them easier to understand. Therefore, the children were able to make their own simplified generalizations about the information they were learning. This is very beneficial for their understanding of complex topics. This can be helpful for you as you continue in your college career where your classes will get more difficult and begin to build on each other. Once you are able to understand the foundation of your field of study, learning more complex topics will be easier. Then using the spacing effect while you are studying, you can retain even more information, especially for that final exam. Making sure that your study sessions are short and concise is very important. Remember, spacing the time of these study sessions is not limited to days apart. Even short study sessions that are only a few hours apart are still just as beneficial for the retention of information.
Another way that the spacing effect is helpful is that when you are using the spacing effect for a longer period of time, when you are trying to recall information, you are trying to remember the last time it was encoded into your memory. This means that the information has already gone through encoding once. If you froget this information and it goes through the encoding process again, it is more likely to be remembered later. This can be helpful when studying for a final exam or a big test because you would have already encoded that information at least once. This would have occurred during the lecture where the information was presented to you for the first time. Then when you begin your study session, you are trying to recall that previous encoding process. If you are unsuccessful in this process, then that information is encoded again, and your brain will remember it more readily (Vlach 1st one). This makes your study session more effective in the long run. Additionally, if you use the spacing effect to your advantage, you will continue to recall the new coding repeatedly, moving this information into your long-term memory. This is significantly more effective than cram studying or mass learning information because when you cram study, the new information is being encoded but moved into your long-term memory for easier recall later during that exam or test.
How to Effectively Use the Spacing Effect:
So how do you implement this effect into your everyday studying for exams and tests? First, you can make sure to take notes during your lectures. This way, the information that you will see again on your test is encoded for the first time. Next, once you know the material that will be on your test or exam, you begin to section it into manageable chunks. This may be an entire chapter at a time or by each section within a chapter. Finally, you work through these smaller sections of material. This could be reading the material again, making quizlets for later spaced study sessions, or talking through the information with a partner. Once you work through a section or smaller chunk, make sure to take a break. Then work through another chunk. Repeat this until you have gone through all the material needed for the test. Finally, continue to cycle through the material throughout the day or the week before your test or exam. This way you are able to recall the freshly encoded information and transfer it into your long-term memory for your test.
Lastly, making sure that the ways in which you study for your tests are slightly different each time will also be beneficial for your performance on your exams. According to Dellarosa’s experiment with the spacing effect, “The greater the number of retrieval routes to, or encoding contexts for, a given item, the greater the probability that the item will be retrieved.” (Dellarosa). This means that the ways in which you recall information should be different each time to give the information you want to remember the most pathways to being remembered. This could look like reading the definition and answering with the term for the first study session. Then you take a break and flip it around. The second time you will recall the definition after reading the term. By doing this, you will be able to have two pathways to the information that you are trying to remember for your exam. It can be helpful because sometimes you will recognize the definition for each term but not fully understand its meaning. By having to remember the definition and recognize its term, you can remember the information more precisely and consistently.
I hope that the next time that you have an exam or big test coming up, you make sure to use the spacing effect to increase your chances of doing well. Remember the spacing effect and how it increases your retention. Good luck with your classes!
References
- Walsh, M. M., Gluck, K. A., Gunzelmann, G., Jastrzembski, T., Krusmark, M., Myung, J. I., … & Zhou, R. (2018). Mechanisms underlying the spacing effect in learning: A comparison of three computational models. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(9), 1325.
- Bjork, R. A., & Allen, T. W. (1970). The spacing effect: Consolidation or differential encoding?. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 9(5), 567-572.
- Vlach, H. A., & Sandhofer, C. M. (2012). Distributing learning over time: The spacing effect in children’s acquisition and generalization of science concepts. Child development, 83(4), 1137-1144.
- Vlach, H. A., Sandhofer, C. M., & Kornell, N. (2008). The spacing effect in children’s memory and category induction. Cognition, 109(1), 163-167.
- Dellarosa, D., & Bourne, L. E. (1985). Surface form and the spacing effect. Memory & Cognition, 13(6), 529-537.