Theory
Work of 19th century German scientist revitalised in contemporary e-learning platform
Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve
At the end of the nineteenth century the German psychologist Ebbinghaus discovered that people forget about 80 percent of newly acquired knowledge within 24 hours (1).
Ebbinghaus claimed that repetition was the remedy for forgetting. He formulated a rule of thumb for a repetition scheme that ensures that knowledge is fixed in the long-term memory. It is on this scheme that MemoTrainer is based.
The education process
The traditional education process describes de different stages to bring a student from a present level up to a desired level.
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Pretest: Determine the present level from the student to decide the learning plan;
- Transfer: Newly acquired knowledge is being transferred to the student;
- Test: Determine to see if the student really did reach the desired level.
These three stages can be identified in every course.
The education process with the forgetting curve
Experience has shown that students start studying the literature a few days before the exam. At this stage they have nearly forgotten what they have learned during the courses. The newly acquired knowledge was not absorbed in the long-term memory and therefore the desired level of knowledge is only of short duration.
MemoTrainer adds two stages to the education process:
- Training: Exam preparation;
- Maintenance: Maintain the acquired knowledge after the exam in the scope of permanent education.
Both stages are recognised by repetition of knowledge through MemoTraining. The moment and the composition of this MemoTraining is fully automised to every individual student.
MemoTrainer and the theory of constructivism
The Ebbinghaus' theory of repetition has been the foundation for many (classical) didactical models. Especially in 'the fifties' education was pure pounding knowledge. In these days, the didactical theories put more accent on connencting the knowledge on the present knowledge of the student.
The constructivism for example, accepts that the newly acquired knowledge will be absorbed directly into the long-term memory when this is connected to the present knowledge of the student. Present knowledge will be activated by asking questions.
With MemoTrainer, every individual student will receive a personalized training compound of questions that exactly activate and train the knowledge which is important for that individual student.
(1) Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology, Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)
Translated by Henry A. Ruger & Clara