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Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

Aug 16, 2023

You've watched an online video that covered a fascinating topic, and then woke up following day without remembering all the information you just learnt, you've fallen victim to the forgetting curve.

It is believed that the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve can be described as a mental concept linked to memory and how we forget things over time. What you should learn regarding the forgotten curve, plus strategies to combat the forgetting curve to both educators and students.

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What's the forgetting curve in the field of psychology?

The Forgetting Curve - aka the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve - is a graphical model that shows the way we lose information as time passes. The curve shows how our memory decreases as time passes, the percentage of data we keep diminishes.

Learning the Hermann Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve takes its name from Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist who was a regular researcher of memory and learning throughout the 19th century. This is what you should be aware of.

  who was Hermann Ebbinghaus and why was crucial to him?  

It's difficult to quantify the significance that Hermann Ebbinghaus on experimental psychology. Building on the work of an German philosopher named Herbart, Ebbinghaus was one of the first researchers to conduct experiments on the nature of forgetting. carried out a string of detailed and thorough experiments, which he eventually finished and published in 1880-1885.

Ebbinghaus" forgetting curve" is constructed from seven months of self-experimentation at times for as long as 3 hours per day. Ebbinghaus conducted his first study on himself first using numbers, tones, as well as poem stanzas, to test his own memory and ways of losing track of time.

But he quickly realized that these materials weren't right for his experiments as they contained too much variability. In the end, Ebbinghaus chose to employ nonsense syllables - like "Zof", "Qax", and "Wid" They were more consistent as compared to the existing poetry or words and also other language materials.

The introduction of nonsense syllables is one of the first to use artificially controlled stimuli for psychology and a wide range of psychological experiments in the experimental realm derived from his methods.

Then Ebbinghaus tried his findings using verses from Don Juan by Byron which proved his initial results but also resulted in a wider variance in the results compared to the nonsensical words. A number of experimental psychologists have duplicated Ebbinhaus"forgotten experiments" and generated similar results.

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What's the process by which the forgetting curve function?

The forgetting curve displays the decline of memory retention in time. The curve displays how data is lost over time. There are six additional aspects of memory and forgetting that also play a role:

The fluctuating rate of not being able to remember

The rate of forgetting increases exponentially It decreases steeply as the amount of retained knowledge decreases as we get new knowledge.

Most memories are lost in the initial hour of learning. It is common for us to only recall around 75% of the information we learned when we finish an instruction. Within a few days, you've lost more than 75% of the information you learnt.

The probability of forgetting goes at this point, so memory declines with a slow pace. That means you'll only be able to remember some key points from the course in the course of a couple of days, but you'll be able to recall the details for a long time.

The importance of meaningfulness and prior knowledge

When it comes to retention of information, previous experiences have a significant role to play in the probability that we retain things. If you can link new learning content to previous knowledge and it's much easier to recall.

The importance of meaning also affects memory. when information has meaning it is more likely that you will remember it. For instance, you're able to remember directions for how to reach your friend's home more quickly than retaining the information from that video you viewed the same day because of the importance of that data. The directions have more meaning therefore your memory is more likely to hold onto the information.

It's the same with topics that you're interested in or relevant to you. Taking a look at the case studies of those you are familiar with, as an example is more beneficial in comparison to reading a textbook.

Things that don't have any significance, such as the absurd syllables -- fit into in the closest to the forgotten curve while topics that contain meaning, and also where there is prior experience are more likely to stick.

The way information is presented

How something is conveyed is a significant factor in how easy it is to remember. Simpleness is crucial in this case. It's much easier to retain the information if it's written in a simple, straightforward way with plenty of visual aids like diagrams and infographics - compared to a block of featureless text.

The effect of the complexity

The speed at which you forget information is influenced by the complexity of the material you're trying learn. The more complex material tends to be harder to retain. This is because the brain can only focus on a limited number of things at one time and, when it gets to its limit, it discards details and the more complex information is lost.

Multiple variations of HTML0 in memory

The learning curve for forgetting generally the same for everyone and the basic rate of memory loss doesn't differ in any way between individuals. However, there are some who possess better memory than other people. That means you can expect to observe differences in the class of students between the types of information they remember as well as how long they can remember it.

As well as changes in previous knowledge as well as its significance and the impact of this on the learning curve are many other elements which play a role.

The factors that impact memory can be influenced by:

  • Age
  • Environment
  • Genetics
  • Concentration
  • Emotions

Although the forgetting curve can be described as a general design that is applicable to everyone who learns however, there are a few small personal variations in how much you'll remember in comparison to the other students.

The psychological and physiological aspects

Physical factors too play an important role in the process of memory retention. For example, sleep deprivation greatly affects your ability to remember and absorb information. Hunger and nutrition can also influence memory processing.

Then there's the influence of psychological factors. Stress and anxiety could hinder your ability to store and retain knowledge. This is particularly important for those who are learning because anxiety and stress can result in a vicious cycle - learners feel stressed, which makes it difficult to keep information in mind, which causes more stress which in turn leads to more stress.

Forgetting curve example

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve looks like this with the proportion of information retained on one axis and duration of time on the second one.

The rate of change on the graph. The majority of data disappearing within the first hour prior to leveling off as more time goes by.

The scientific basis behind the forgotten curve

Human brains have an incredible ability to acquire memory, remember, and store knowledge we've acquired throughout the course of our lives. Memory is a dynamic process - we have to use effort to rebuild memories and recall concepts, ideas as well as information we've learnt across decades.

Although forgetting was for a long time considered to be a negative feature of memory, scientists now think that it could actually be a function of the brain - since it allows our brains to communicate dynamically with their surrounding. Although it can be a nuisance to forget, forgetting some memories can help as it can lead to more flexible behavior and more effective decision-making.

Researchers are now suggesting that memory loss can be attributed to changes in access to memory, not the loss of memory and its decay. It's still stored in the brain, however you're not able to use it any longer.

What's good? There are strategies that can assist you with remembering the things you've learnt - and make the learning process more enjoyable.

10 strategies to beat the forgotten curve

While it is impossible to avoid the forgetting curve completely, here are 10 strategies you can use to improve knowledge retention and reduce the impact of the forgetting curve.

Used spaced repetition

The forgetting curve shows the way in which information gets lost when it's not reviewed or revisited. But Ebbinghaus also found that knowledge is more easy to recall if it's repeated - meaning it's important to revisit your content once you've learned the material.

One of the most effective ways to improve memory is to revisit learning material at spaced intervals. Instead of trying to cram everything in one time, you should repeat the lesson several times following the first lesson. This strategy helps to increase memory retention as well as keep the information fresh in your mind.

Check out the below graph to understand what it does.

Teachers: If you are using this approach in your classroom be sure to offer learners follow-up activities to assist them in reviewing what they were taught in the first lesson. You can try using quick refresher videos such as quizzes and flashcards.

Learners: Make your schedule for reviewing the information you've learnt - including immediately after the lesson, then over the course of three days afterward. Try setting alarms on your smartphone to remind you the time for an exercise that you repeat.

Practice active learning

You can improve the retention of your information by engaging in active learning. This means actively engaging with the material you're learning rather than passively either listening or watching. This can be accomplished by taking notes, summarizing important points, drawing pictures and so on.

Processing information while you learn it helps to reinforce the memory process. To aid this process educators could use tasks like requiring students to share their real-time reactions to videos or lesson content by using a messenger app, chat function, or via live tweeting with hashtags that are specific to the class. This helps learners engage with the lesson, recognize patterns, and assess other learners' points on the topic as they progress.

For educators: To encourage learners to be active, create activities for students - such as spending 5 minutes explaining the information they've recently learned to a partner or taking a quick quiz.

For learners: Make sure that you are actively engaged in learning materials by taking notes, summarizing your knowledge, taking notes in writing or voice on the subject using your own words.

Break content into chunks

If you want to learn and remember the information you have learned about complex subjects, you should break it down into bite-sized chunks. It helps enhance memory, while making learning content more fun!

for learners: If you're faced with a big subject to cover, try break down the material into chunks by breaking it into smaller pieces - write your notes as chunks by separating important information in bullets, lists, or single sentences, to help you remember it.

Test memory by retrieval games

In order to improve your recall, try retrieval exercises in order to stimulate your brain's ability to draw the information stored in your memory rather than merely re-reading or re-watching the learning content.

Testing yourself on the material you've learnt from memory helps to improve your understanding, while also giving you satisfaction in seeing how well you remember! Have fun by taking tests or games instead of routine tests.

For educators: To help learners to improve their memory and practice, create regular closed-book tests and quizzes that cover the teaching materials that are relevant to each subject. Use a tool such as Kahoot for creating interactive quizzes on the internet.

Learners: You can try the copy-cover and check method to assess yourself as you're learning - Cover your notes with a sheet and try to remember the information, then check your performance. Flashcards can be used as a memory retrieval tool as well.

Make use of the visual aids

One of the best methods to help you store the information you need to remember in your memory is pairing ideas with visuals and images. Visuals are a great way to help you make sense of content - If you are able to connect the idea with an image and increase the chance that it will be stored into your brain's long-term memory, and you'll remember it down the time.

Visual aids could be:

  • Diagrams
  • Charts
  • Infographics
  • Mind Maps

For teachers: Use visuals throughout your learning content to help concepts and ideas remain in students' minds - encourage learners to play around with'sketchnoting', in which they draw a sketch of what they've learnt rather than writing conventional notes that help students visualise their knowledge.

Take an approach that involves multiple sensory inputs to learn

If you want something to stick in your mind try a new approach to learning by making it multisensory. Those 5 senses activities do not just apply to children in kindergarten - students of any age can benefit from learning activities that involve the senses like the senses of smell, touch and the taste.

A few ideas are:

  • Science experiments that are hands-on
  • Field trips and individual events
  • Role playing
  • Hand and dance movements
  • themed board games

For educators: Develop teaching materials with multisensory tasks to be considered - even the learners you teach are not in your classroom they can be encouraged to engage in multisensory learning by establishing goals and exercises that will encourage learners to step up from their desk and engage with the learning content. Make sure you match the movements of your hands and dancing to the key ideas to make them simpler to recall.

For learners: Try making use of multisensory stimuli such as taste, smell and sounds to help you learn information. Certain smells could aid concentration and memory such as rosemary and lavender essential oils.

Make it fun using Interleaving

Interleaving is an effective method to improve long-term memory retention, as well as improving problem-solving abilities. The Interleaving technique involves mixing - or interleaving - multiple subjects while learning.

Instead of focusing on only the one topic, instructors could use interleaving to boost memory by alternating back and forth between concepts or topics. Learn one topic, take time explaining it, then move onto another concept before revisiting the original idea later.

Interleaving encourages comparison and contrast. These will increase the understanding of learners of a topic and their knowledge retention.

For educators: Use interleaving to give context to specific subjects or ideas e.g. interleaving different historical events from various countries around a similar theme. Do not mix topics that are too similar or differing so it isn't a risk of confusing students.

For students For those who are learning to self-study, use interleaving to break up the concepts and topics throughout your studies, rather than learning everything on a single topic in one block. It can aid in remembering and remember the material for longer.

Spaced practice schedule

When it comes to memories, how you develop is just as crucial as what you learn.

Instead of trying to cram learning content the best method for your memory is to space out lessons over several sessions. This is called spaced practice. Plan spaced learning exercises in time, for example 1 hour every day leading towards a test instead of one 8-hour session.

If you can disperse your knowledge over several days or weeks it will improve your recall and lower your chances of not remembering the information. Also, it means less pressure to master everything you have to know by cramming. Each session provides you with the chance to go back to what you've learned in past sessions, re-read the material, and enhance your knowledge of the subject or topic.

For teachers: Add activities within your content for learning that allow students to revisit prior subjects, such as by creating an activity with pictures to help learners remember and clarify key concepts using memory.

For learners who want to take advantage of this strategy, you must plan your timetable for learning beforehand so you can know the topics you'll be reviewing every day. This will make you to be more organized and reduce stress - especially before a test or exam.

Incorporate teach and explain the activities

Enhance knowledge retention through activities that encourage learners to attempt to teach the subject material to other people or even imagine explaining it to someone else. Teaching helps to solidify students' knowledge of the subject, while also strengthening memory recall.

For example for example, the Jigsaw method divides learners into groups. Each person in the group is given a different topic to explore. When they have had time to refreshment and additional research, learners regroup with other learners who were exploring the same idea to confirm their knowledge. Then the original groups come back together, and each student is able to teach the subject to their original group.

For learners: Try to get a study partner with whom you can perform different teaching and explaining tasks with - you could do them remotely via live video calls or record your own explanation of concepts, and then send the videos to your partner in study or online learning community.

Use the information to real life situations

Make use of real-world scenarios to increase the retention of knowledge by locating situations that are real and real-world problems and debates that have to do with the material you're learning. If you are able to embed learning in specific relevant contexts, you're more likely to build stronger memories that are easier to recall in the future.

To help educators, include lessons that help students put their knowledge into real-world scenarios and examples for example, like debating the most popular topics within your field or industry. Either pair students one-on-one or start a whole-class discussion.

for learners: Research real-life case studies of the concepts that you've learned to observe the way they are applied in real life - when it comes to recalling the information, you're more likely to remember it when you've connected your learning to a concrete location, issue, or an entire group of people.

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve in remote learning

For creator educators, knowing the forgetting curve is essential to help you create and release content that increases learning retention. As your learning content will likely not be distributed in person, it is essential to discover strategies that will help enhance learning with remote tasks and assignments that activates the learners' minds and sparks their imaginations.

Here are some ideas for you to start:

  • Use social media to reinforce learning: While it might be hard to compete against the huge quantity of learning content on social media If you are able to encourage learners to make use of social media in order to strengthen their knowledge over time, then you will be able to decrease the rate of forgetting Think of themed hashtags, discussion threads and videos that help them revise key concepts.
  • Create discussion groups: If you have an online community area, you can use group discussions to encourage learners to revisit and recall important knowledge topics and concepts as well as enhancing social learning by promoting increased interaction and involvement within your group.
  • Make use of digital flashcards: These flashcards help learners to reinforce their learning on-the-go, without the need for a partner or physical classroom setting. Design flashcards that reflect your information or invite students to create their own.
  • Utilize cases studies: Case studies are an extremely effective strategy to help improve understanding and knowledge retention in learners, wherever they're working from. Instruct students to look for cases that relate or intriguing to them. This will help make the content relevant, meaningful and fun.

Don't get caught out by the forgetting curve

Both educators and learners will benefit from knowing the curve of forgetting - as well as taking proactive steps to minimize the impact of a forgetting. While every learner is likely to experience Ebbinghaus"the forgetting curve" in some way or another by using the appropriate learning strategies you can improve knowledge retention and long-term memory to get better results.

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