Whether it's as simple as misplaced keys or as unnerving as walking into a classroom with no memory that a major test was scheduled, forgetting is very common. Learning and development professionals are tasked with beating that tendency to forget to achieve desired behavior change.
One of the first people to study the process of forgetting was a psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus. Ebbinghaus found that it's much harder for a learner to retain information that has no meaning for them. He also concluded that it takes longer to forget material each time it's re-learned. Finally, he said that a person will have greater success with learning if the studying is spread out over time.
Repetition is one of the biggest aids to increasing retention. Repetition includes reviewing material from the current program and revisiting content which was previously covered.
Timing plays a critical role in knowledge retention, but is often overlooked. Delivering your messages at the right time can make all the difference. The time of day the repetition takes place is essential to the success of a training reinforcement program.
Using the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve can effectively help people remember their training. However, behavior change can only be achieved with more advanced reinforcement methods, like results-driven training reinforcement program that moves learners past remembering and towards application.
Download our eBook, Moving Beyond The Forgetting Curve, to learn how Mindmarker helps move your learners toward lasting behavior change.
This post was originally published on December 10, 2019.