By Randilyn Light-Smith
We all stress about having a big final, quiz, or even a test coming up. This could have even started at a young age of stressing about one coming up. Coming up with many ways on how to prepare and study for one of these was always a big help. One of the main ways was repeating something over and over again. This can be done by saying it out loud or rereading the material you were given over and over again. Why is doing something over and over again a big way that helps you remember the material you learned?
Dating all the way back to Ebbinghaus in 1885 was a big part of learning about the spacing effect. It shows that the effect of doing repetitions spaced out in time helps to produce a stronger memory rather than repetitions that are done all at once during the same time. Ebbinghause also had a book called 1.) “A Contribution to Experimental Psychology” that told us about the great deal of research that has been found in conducting on the spacing effect. Behavioral studies were performed to explore the effects of the spacing with intervals of 24 hours or more. Using language related tasks, skilled related tasks, or the overall generalization of learning.
3.) What is the spacing effect in learning? It is when you find that the long term memory is enhanced when you are learning from events that are spaced apart, rather than being all at one time or learning something last minute for the first time. For example using the method of reviewing the material you have in intervals. The beginning is the learning process. You just begin looking over the material you have and breaking them up into sections. Then moving onto doing the separate sections you have, you do each section for a couple hours, then you would move onto the next section. At the end you would be able to put all your material back together and can remember it all together.
There are many ways for you to prepare or study for something important you need to pass. Some examples of this are 1. reinforce key concepts with real-world activities. 2. Using a variety of delivery methods. 3. Include checklists and summaries of the material you have done. Those are just some of the ways that can help you prepare better.
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2.) Ebbinghaus also reported that in 2015 a study showed York University students found that spacing out lectures and the reviews for the quiz boosted their test performances. They had attended 45 minute class lectures. Half of the students in the class took the quiz for the lecture the next day. The students who took the quiz eight days later after the lecture performed a lot better than the students who took the quiz the day after the lecture.
At the end of the day I know learning ways on how to study is something that isn’t easy for all of us to do. Also making time to study in longer periods of time, rather than cramming it into the night before you have to take a test or a quiz. Hopefully after reading this blog will give you some ideas on how to learn to prepare and study for something that is going to either benefit your grade or drag it down. There is also many more other ways on how to do the spacing effect rather than some of the examples I listed.
Citations
Vlach, Haley A, and Catherine M Sandhofer. “Distributing Learning over Time: The Spacing Effect in Children’s Acquisition and Generalization of Science Concepts.” Child Development, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2012, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399982/.
Santoro, Helen. “The Neuroscience behind the Spacing Effect.” BrainFacts.org, https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/learning-and-memory/2021/the-neuroscience-behind-the-spacing-effect-030421.
Smith, Christopher D., and Damian Scarf. “Spacing Repetitions over Long Timescales: A Review and a Reconsolidation Explanation.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00962/full#:~:text=The%20spacing%20effect%20is%20the,A%20Contribution%20to%20Experimental%20Psychology.