Imagine you learn a new lesson right before you go on vacation, you enjoy yourself and don’t have a free moment to think about what you had just learned. When you come back, you’ve all but forgotten what you took in a short time before. This is an example of memory quickly fading when there isn’t an attempt to refresh and retain that information.
The good news is this has been studied and we know how improve retention!
What is the Forgetting Curve?
Way back in 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus did a study on himself to learn more about how long it takes to forget. By experimenting with memorization, he was able to create the “Forgetting Curve”, which shows how easily knowledge can be forgotten over time.
In order to overcome this forgetting curve, he came up with two hypotheses:
One: Creating a mnemonic to represent an item in memory will help will retention.
Two: Reviewing the learned content on a consistent basis flattens the curve after every revisit. This is called ‘spaced repetition’.
Putting It Into Practice with Flashcards
So now you know about spaced repetition, but what good is that without a way of putting it to work? The good news is that a simple, effective way has existed for quite a while: flashcards. There’s a high chance you have used them growing up to learn math or science terms and we’d bet some of those things still stick with you to this day because of the frequent review and recall.
Combining technology with proven learning techniques is where FLIP shines in the learning arena. Digital flashcards, easy review, easy retention. Want to get started on improving your retention? Reach out to the FLIP team and we can start 2021 on a memorable note!
