Accelerated Learning by Experimentation
Roger E. Bohn, Michael A. Lapré · Industrial innovation series · 2011
Forgetting is one of the most fundamental aspects of cognitive performance. Typically, forgetting is studied across time, where performance on a memory test plotted as a function of time is called a “forgetting curve.” This forgetting is essential to all forms of behavioral studies, because it greatly inuences how much information can be accessed. On very short timescales, most, if not all, information is retained in the cognitive system, where this information is rapidly lost over time with a fraction of the original memory maintained over an extended period. These memories are maintained in different memory systems that span across various timescales, are related to different types of interference, and are possibly based on different neurophysiological substrates. On very short timescales, memory is maintained in a modality-speci¥c perceptual system that holds the incoming sensory information so that it can be processed and summarized by the cognitive systems. The details of these sensory systems depend on the modality, where, for example, the visual system maintains the information more briey than the auditory system (Martin and Jones 1979). In fact, the visual-sensory system holds information for so short a period of time that the content typically disappears before it can be ef¥ciently reported by the subjects. Memories maintained for periods longer than the sensory memory are typically divided into short-term and long-term memory, where the retained information Introduction ............................................................................................................ 163 Breaks and Forgetting ............................................................................................ 165 Theories of Massed and Spaced Learning ............................................................. 167 Breaks and the Brain .............................................................................................. 167 Sleeping Breaks ..................................................................................................... 168 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 170 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. 170 References .............................................................................................................. 170 is increasingly based on semantic or episodic aspects of the studied material. Shortterm memory and the similar concept of working memory are functionally seen as the memory systems required for processing and manipulating information that is directly related to the current task. The working memory can be further divided into systems maintaining visual/auditory information and a more central executive component. The visual and auditory systems may be seen as slave systems to the central executive system, where higher order and controlled processes occur, including elaboration of the information carried in the slave systems (Baddeley and Hitch 1974). Memories in the working memory are maintained for time periods measured in seconds, whereas the consolidation or the elaboration of memory promotes the storing of memories in a persistent long-term memory system, where information is maintained for hours, days, and years.