The Forgetful Curve

[Rodney]

I ran across this graphic and it spoke to me of the whys and wherefores of forgetfulness.

 

Personally, I think the graph may be inflated by suggesting we retain only 21% at 31 days.

Surely it must be lower.

 

Obviously there are factors that will improve retention of information.

Exposure time itself is a factor.

Then there is the rule of "First Learned Best Remembered."

And "Last Learned Longer Maintained" (paraphrasing this one... I must not have fully learnt it!)

[robcat2075]

"I've forgotten more than you will ever know" is the saying.

 

If I'm remembering that correctly.

[Rodney]

"I've forgotten more than you will ever know" is the saying.

 

If I'm remembering that correctly.

 

That is true on so many levels. (Especially when you are saying it!)

 

 

Between what we do not yet know and what we are sure to forget its a wonder anything will ever be known.

 

I'm also equating this 'law' with why we'll always need more video tutorials.

[robcat2075]

At Nortel I would so frequently claim I didn't recall some pertinent exchange that my manager started beginning conversations with "Robert, I need you to put on your memory cap for a minute..."

[Darkwing]

I took intro psych last year and this sorta thing was touched on, however, it's not forgetting the information so much, as being able to recall it. Recalling it relies though on properly storing the memory. If in those integral first few seconds you don't encode it well, then recalling it becomes infinitely harder as time progresses (as the curve indicates).

[NancyGormezano]

Use it or lose it

[robcat2075]

Use it or lose it

 

Now I have to remember that too!

[fae_alba]

The older I get, the less I wanna know.

[Gerry]

At Nortel I would so frequently claim I didn't recall some pertinent exchange that my manager started beginning conversations with "Robert, I need you to put on your memory cap for a minute..."

Dude, they gave you memory caps there? What a...what a, um...what's the word I want?

[mouseman]

Anyone used the "memory palaces" technique? That's supposedly the main trick for people that can remember the sorted order of a deck of cards or a whole room-ful of peoples' names.

 

I've read a few times how great of a good idea they are and read about trivial examples, but I can't really figure out how to use such a thing effectively, and haven't seen a serious real-world example.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

The older I get the more I learn that I don't know and forget much of what I did learn.

 

[thejobe]

i knew what i wanted to type when i read the first post but by the time i got to the bottom i forgot what this topic was about....