Catswatch

Spacing the Study

The interval between learning and repetition is much more important than people usually assume and it is one of the factors regrettably neglected in our school education. Almost every good book on psychology and learning stresses the importance of these intervals, but I have not yet seen a single schoolbook that takes advantage of these findings.

You know as well as I do that it is entirely wrong to assume that any subject matter which we once learned and mastered will remain our mental property for ever. You know that person may have spoken a foreign language rather fluently but not using it for several years may have lost the ability completely and be forced to admit that he can neither speak it nor understand it any more.

Of course that cannot happen if he uses the language constantly. Use is repetition and repetition is necessary for everything, which we wish to keep alive in our minds. So far the facts are known to everyone. What is not so well know is that the spacing of repetition plays a very important role in time-saving.

It is found that a subject which requires 20 repetitions if learned in one day requires only 15 repetitions if they are spread out over three days. A more complex subject which required 50 repetitions in one day could be mastered by repeating it 15 times the first day, 10 times the second day, and 5 times the third day.

Repetitions for all three consecutive days add up to 30, effecting a saving of time amounting to approximately 40 per cent if compared with the 50 repetitions on a single day. Since time is, or should be, of great value to all of us, nobody should fail to make use of such a time saving device, especially if it is so easy to apply as the proper spacing of learning and repetition.

Whenever you have to learn something new, do not try to master it completely on the first day. Be satisfied if you acquire a fair knowledge of it, allow it to sink in to your memory, and then repeat it on the two following days, and you will see that you can master it better with less effort.