Repetition and Learning Rates

Repetition and learning go hand in hand.

The more times you repeat something, the more likely it is to stay in your head.

Rote memorisation – the repetition of facts until they become lodged into the brain – is probably the most important concept in learning and memory.

Learning through repetition is a technique that you’ve probably already used. Abstract things like phone numbers, foreign words or spellings are particularly unnatural things to memorise, and repetition is often used to imbed them into our heads.

For example, you may have spent time repeating a telephone number to yourself over and over again. Then perhaps you became frustrated when 15 minutes later you’d forgotten it again. But gradually, as you repeated it to yourself over a period of time, it will have become ingrained in your memory.

Memory techniques help to reduce this need to repeat and revise; but a quick revision is, even then, highly advisable. In fact, it is probably the most important memory technique there is.

I say this because you can memorise anything if you repeat it to yourself enough and at the correct frequencies. Other techniques will speed up the process, but repetition is a sure fire way of succeeding. Use repetition and learning becomes inevitable. Repetition and learning really are inseparable.

Timing your repetition and learning periods

The fact that repetition helps you to memorise is well known, but the importance of the time between repetitions is less well known.

The timings are particularly important because if you don’t revise often enough you will forget things. And if you do it too often (especially in the early stages) you’re going to be wasting a lot of time, and confuse yourself.

We’ll get to the specifics of timing in a moment.

The importance of breaks

Breaks are incredibly important because your brain needs time to fix itself and recuperate. You may think that your understanding of what you’re studying is highest immediately after you finish studying. In actual fact, you will have a greater understanding following a 10 minute break!

Why is this?

Well, when we create a new connection in our brains, that connection is weak. Over a period of about 10 minutes, it gradually strengthens and becomes more stable.

If you don’t take enough breaks, those weak connections interfere with other new connections and you become confused. So you need to give your brain enough time to make those connections strong. When they are strong, they will be able to handle any interference.

Keeping your learning strong through revision

After that first 10 minutes, your brain cells will reach their peak strength. At this point you will know the subject better than you did when you started your break.

Unfortunately your learning then begins to fade again.

The new connections begin to weaken again until they finally disappear. If we don’t do something about this, we will forget a lot of what we’ve learnt.

We stop the degrading process by repeating (or revising) what we previously learnt. This fires off the connection in the brain again, and makes sure it stays strong.

So when you’ve finished revising, take another 10 minutes break and then revise again. And then do the same thing a 3rd, and final, time. Experiments have shown that 3 activations, with 10 minute breaks in between, make the memories the strongest and last the longest.

After that you shouldn’t need to revise until the following day, after a good nights sleep. Thereafter, suggested times to revise are after a week, a month, six months and a year.

Automatic Revision

When you reach a certain point, you’ll no longer need to think about revising because you’ll be doing so by accident.

For example, if you learnt to speak Spanish in school, you run the risk of forgetting it after a few years. But if you go on holiday to Spain every few years, and read the odd Spanish publication you will automatically be revising that subject.

And if you don’t automatically revise them, you’re not using that knowledge anyway, so who cares?

Repetition and learning rates differ for each person

Each individual and situation will require slightly different timings for their revisions.

One person may not need to revise until a month after the first revision, while others may have to revise more frequently. It will differ depending on the individual, how they learn, and what it is they are learning.

You can reduce the need to repeat by using other memory techniques, staying healthy, and by following more of the advice on this site. And as you become better at these techniques you will want to adjust how often you revise.

There is a certain art in revision. You have to know when things are harder to remember, and how often to go back and revise.

In the meantime you need to experiment. Take note of how easily you remembered your material during your revisions. And then adjust for next time. And remember to take into account that different things will take different durations.