Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curves
The work of experimental psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus came up at work recently.
His research into learning and forgetting are interesting to marketers who want consumers to have their brands and products top-of-mind.
Most people have heard of “learning curves” but Ebbinghaus also theorized and tested “forgetting curves”.
These explain the decline in memory retention over time, if no attempts at retention are made.
It works remarkably similarly to how computer caching works (as noted by the authors of Algorithms To Live By).
If one uses a remembered piece of information regularly and they can retrieve it from memory quickly.
And the alternative is also true.
Related terms, Overlearning and Automaticity also have interest in discussions like the above.
If one learns past point of 100% mastery, one can retrieve information without much mental effort. Like muscle memory of the brain.
