Reinforce—build brain networks for the long term
The reinforce step involves applying the techniques you have selected
and prepared for during the previous Arrange step. The previous arrange step
prepared material for your brain. This step is where you change your brain
for long term memorization.
The reinforce step involves three activities. These are applying the
techniques, using repetition, and then continuing with refresh reviews. The
following diagram outlines these stages. This is an example timeframe. Your
individual course may vary in length and timing.
Think of repetition as building your brain networks, and refresh reviews
as preserving them for the long term. Usually you will have an exam or test
to complete as part of a course, so this may be a good point to split these
tasks. You may choose any point you like.
Use repetition to reinforce your knowledge
An objective of many of the techniques in Memletics is to reduce the
reliance on rote repetition as a primary learning technique. However,
repetition is still a fundamental part of learning any new material.
The key to effective repetition though is spaced repetition. Let’s look
at why. Look at the first graph below. It shows three ways you could learn a
simple skill through repetition. These three ways are to spread sixty
repetitions across one session a day, one session a week or one session a
fortnight. The graph is over a four-week period.
For the “one session a week” and “one session a fortnight” approaches,
you have something working against you. If you exceed a certain number of
repetitions in a single learning session, the extra repetitions have little
effect on overall recall. The shaded line across the middle of the graph
marks this trait of memory. Any more repetitions above this line in a single
session are not effective.
The next graph shows the overall effect of this trait. It shows the total
effective repetitions over the four weeks.
This graph shows the overall effectiveness of each of the three
approaches-one session a day, a week and a fortnight. As you can see (for
this example), doing one session a day is twice as effective as one session
a week. One session a day is more than three times as effective as one
session a fortnight. Keep in mind the overall number of repetitions over the
four weeks is the same - sixty repetitions.
One item to note from this example is the number of possible effective
repetitions in a day depends on many factors. These include the complexity
of your activities, the time for each repetition, the type of knowledge you
are learning, and others.
Use refresh reviews to keep your knowledge indefinitely
I’ve discussed using regular repetition to improve your learning. Now
let’s look at the impact of forgetting. How much do we forget after a single
lesson? Look at the graph below.
Look at the shaded area to the left of the graph. It shows that we
typically forget eighty percent of new information within the first
twenty-four hours of the first lesson. With repetition and review though, we
can eventually achieve significant recall. Regularly reviewing your material
improves your overall recall of material as time progresses. Alternatively,
if you do not use what you have learned, you will start to lose it.
Many of our current training approaches do not recognize the need for
refresh reviews. This I believe is a fundamental flaw and reflects the view
that passing an exam or test is the main objective of the course. You should
judge the success of a training course on the use and retention of the
training material after six, twelve and twenty-four months. The refresh
review is a key strategy to help you achieve long-term retention.
The Memletics Accelerated Learning Manual describes:
Apply the techniques
- General points on applying the techniques and noting the outcomes
- Tips for application, including keeping an open mind, and what to do
when they don’t work as you expect.
Use repetition to reinforce your knowledge
- A comprehensive guide to the use of repetition during learning, and
how to make sure your repetitions are most effective.
- Why spacing is so important in your learning schedule.
- How to apply repetition principles in your own training. Three tips
are to spread repetition, use the Memletic techniques to support
repetition, and to reduce repetition over time.
- Find out why cramming is ineffective, how to introduce variety and
interference, and why overlearning can help.
Use refresh reviews to keep your knowledge for the long term
- How to use refresh reviews to keep what you know for the long term.
- Provides a graph that demonstrates the impact of forgetting, including
how much we typically forget within the first twenty-four hours of the
first lesson.
- Outlines a major deficiency in current training approaches – the focus
on the exam or test, and no long term review.
- How long to spend on refresh reviews.
- What to review – which knowledge types are forgotten faster.
- When to do your reviews and what depth to go to.
Effective Repetition Tips
- How to reduce reliance on rote repetition, and how to adopt practices
that help you manage repetition, both during and after your training.
- Some comments on using scheduled review and programmed review
techniques during your training.
- Comments on software like “SuperMemo,” and its huge potential for
developing effective learning programs.
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