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This article throws light upon the seven main factors that influence retention. The factors are: 1. Repetition or Practice 2. Meaningful Learning 3. Whole Vs. Part Learning 4. Massed and Spaced Practice 5. Motivation 6. Feedback 7. Passage of Time.
Factor # 1. Repetition or Practice:
Learning a task involves repeating acts related to that particular task. Many tasks are such that one can learn perfectly only by repeating them. For example, if one wants to learn typing or riding a bicycle, one has to repeat the various acts involved in these skills continuously until one learns these skills perfectly. It has been shown that the greater the number of times we repeat or practice, the better is our retention.
Factor # 2. Meaningful Learning:
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Learning often involves repeating a particular response or a given task. This type of learning, through repetition, is demonstrated when a child repeats mechanically his geography lessons or arithmetic tables. Similarly, a three or four-year old child who simply repeats nursery rhymes while knowing little about stars and sky, says, “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are …………. in the sky.”
This method of learning is called rote learning. Rote learning makes little or no sense to the learner because the repetition is done without understanding what one is repeating. However, it was found that by mere rote learning one may learn particular material but may not be able to retain it for a long period. Further, the child may not remember the learnt material for very long and even if it remembers this will contribute little or nothing to its intellectual development.
Hence, a better way of learning is to learn by paying attention to the meaning and significance of the matter that has to be learnt. It has been proved experimentally that it is easier to learn and remember something if you understand its overall meaning and can relate it to the matter you already know. This type of learning where one also learns the meaning associated with the material helps in both storage and remembering.
In learning a poem or a passage, for example, it is always better to read it, understand the whole matter and have a clear idea of what it is. With such understanding and clarity one can learn it rapidly, retain it for a longer time and remember it when it is necessary. This method makes learning more meaningful unlike the rote learning method, and results in better memory.
Factor # 3. Whole Vs. Part Learning:
Psychologists studying this phenomenon have tried to experiment and see whether learning the whole material of a given task would result in better retention or learning it in parts. For example, learning a poem involves repeating the whole poem until the poem is learnt, while the part-method of learning would mean learning the poem stanza by stanza.
Whole learning is usually more efficient than learning bit by bit or in parts and then trying to put them together. However, the question of learning either by whole or part-method depends upon the type of material, length of material and the way it is organised. For example, students of English literature may divide poems and plays into parts and learn them, but students of trigonometry or chemistry may be unable to arrive at an answer if they break the series of mathematical or chemical equations.
Thus, in the latter case the material has to be learnt as a whole. Learning by parts is effective if the parts are logical sub-units of the whole. The reader may see in this method of part-learning that it is again the meaningfulness of the material which enhances the effectiveness of learning.
Factor # 4. Massed and Spaced Practice:
The method of learning in which the matter is learnt in one continuous sitting with no periods of rest between the practices is called the massed method of practice or learning. In contrast to this is the method called the distributed method of practice or the spaced method of learning where the matter is learnt with intervals in between the sittings.
In other words, practice in this method of learning is spaced or distributed over a period of time with intervals or rest periods during the learning session. Ebbinghaus found that in learning nonsense syllables, each practice session of fifteen minutes distributed over four days resulted in effective learning and retention compared to one hour of continuous practice session in learning the same matter. However, the distribution of the matter and length of interval has to be carefully planned and monitored lest the effectiveness of the method is lost.
Factor # 5. Motivation:
We often experience that when our learning is accompanied by a motive or purpose we are able to retain that particular matter for a longer time. Thus, repetition or practice accompanied by the intent to learn is more effective than mechanical repetitions because we become more receptive if we know that the matter will be useful to us later.
For example, a student who is least interested in the subject of history and has no intention of using the same may learn and reproduce everything in the examination and then forget everything soon after and even here his retention may not be very effective. Thus motivation can play an important role in strengthening or weakening the process of retention.
Factor # 6. Feedback:
While performing a task or learning a particular material, if we stop and check at periodic intervals to see the results (e.g., how many correct responses one has made or how many errors have been committed), then this knowledge of results or feedback is likely to provide encouragement, correction and some sort of a reinforcement. This may subsequently lead to effective learning and, therefore, to effective retention. This method of stopping, looking and then proceeding is sometimes discussed under the heading “Knowledge of Results”.
Factor # 7. Passage of Time:
The time that has lapsed and the activities we perform in between learning and recalling are said to exert a great influence over retention. This becomes evident, for instance, when we apologies for forgetting something very important by saying, “I do remember, it was in my mind all the while but it just went out of my mind”. Thus, activities, ideas, events, etc. occurring in between learning and recalling may act as interfering variables and decrease the probability of successful retention.
In a study conducted relating to this, it was found that sleeping (dreamless sleep) immediately after learning led to better retention of learnt matter. J.C. Jenkins and Dallenbach, in their experiment, found that after learning ten nonsense syllables people who had gone to sleep could recall six, and those who stayed awake could recall only one. This, perhaps, may have occurred because sleep is a state with relatively no or few interfering factors acting on the individual’s mind.
One important point to be kept in mind by the reader while understanding these theories is that the theories which attempt to explain retention and memory also serve to explain loss of retention or forgetting. Thus, remembering and forgetting are like two sides of the same coin. The reader should, therefore, appreciate the twin significance of these theories.