The forgetting curve (Ebbingauz curve)

The forgetting curve or the Ebbingauz curve was obtained as a result of the experimental study of memory by the German psychologist Hermann Ebbingauz in 1885.

Ebbinghaus was fascinated by the idea of ​​studying "pure" memory - memorization, which is not affected by the processes of thinking. To do this, he proposed a method for memorizing meaningless syllables consisting of two consonants and a vowel between them that do not cause any semantic associations (for example, bov , gis , loch , etc.) ^[1] .

During the experiments, it was found that after the first unmistakable repetition of a series of such syllables, forgetting goes very quickly at first. Already within the first hour, up to 60% of all received information is forgotten, 10 hours after memorizing, 35% of the studied one remains in memory. Further, the process of forgetting is slow and after six days about 20% of the total number of originally learned syllables remain in memory, the same amount remains in memory after a month.

Conclusions that can be made on the basis of this curve is that in order to effectively memorize it is necessary to repeat the memorized material.

Psychologists advise do a few reps. Repeat Mode:

If you have two days

the first repetition - immediately after reading;

the second repetition - 20 minutes after the first repetition;

the third repetition - 8 hours after the second;

the fourth repetition - 24 hours after the third.

If you need to remember for a very long time

• the first repetition - immediately after reading;
• the second repetition - 20-30 minutes after the first repetition;
• the third repetition - 1 day after the second;
• the fourth repetition - 2-3 weeks after the third;
• the fifth repetition - in 2-3 months after the fourth repetition

Meaningful memorization is 9 times faster than mechanical memorization (in his experiments, Ebbingauz memorized the text of Don Juan by Byron and an equal in list list of meaningless syllables) ^[1] .

Ebbinghaus also owns the discovery of the edge effect - a phenomenon that shows that the material at the beginning and at the end is best remembered.