Flashcards
Herman Ebbinghaus was the first psychologist to investigate the ability to retain information after learning it. In 1885 he derived his so-called forgetting curves from the results of his experimental work. These curves plot the amount of information remembered against the time elapsed since learning it.
This relationship can be approximately modelled as an exponential decay. With this type of curve the rate at which items are forgotten is initially relatively high, but as time progresses this rate decreases. The steepness of the curve is inversely related to the strength of memory, which is very low (giving a steep curve) for meaningless material, such as random series of letters, and very high (giving a much flatter curve) for vivid memories.
On subsequent reviews of the material being learned, the strength of memory increases and so the forgetting curve starts off again but with its slope reduced. This means that after each review the material will be retained for a longer period. This is the basis of the learning technique known as spaced repetition, in which initially material is reviewed frequently, but after each review the time until the next review is increased.
An effective way of memorising facts is to use flashcards. A question is written on one side of a card, and the answer on the other. Armed with a deck of such cards you can then review your material by looking at the front of each card in turn, mentally answering the question, then turning the card over to reveal the answer. This can be a useful approach for learning vocabulary, where words or phrases in your first language are written on one side of the cards and their counterparts in your target language on the other. Looking at the target-language side of the cards first lets you practise recognition; looking at the opposite side first lets you practise production.
