Spaced Learning

You spend an hour at study, then fifteen minutes at a "break," another hour at your work, another break, and another hour of study, you will have learned more, and memory of the learning will last longer, than if you spend three or even four--straight hours at work.

Perhaps this is due to the reverie in which you are bound to indulge during the break period, reasoning out in your own thoughts the things you've been memorizing. Or, perhaps your mind simply begins to wander when you press it for too long periods of time. At any rate, spaced learning really does work ... try it. Studying for several short periods of time, with intervals of relaxation, generally produces longer-lasting memories than does one long, intensified study period.

Fringe benefits of spaced learning

A peculiar trick which your mind occasionally plays is remembering more of something some time after memorizing it, than very shortly after completion of the memory task. This seems to be a direct contradiction of the memory curve, but it's a very specialized case.

Soon after you've completed a turn at the books, you'll be able to remember a certain portion of the material you've covered, right? But, a few hours, or a day later, when you've spent a little time thinking about the subject, a few points which might have slipped your immediate memory will come to your attention through pattern and association with the related points which you have been able to remember. So, in effect, you are remembering a little bit more than you actually learned at the time of study.

This phenomenon might be a delayed memory of the "forgotten" material's actual position on the page, or a belated understanding of the words which at first you failed to understand, but later found rational in the light of your thinking about the entire subject.

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