Spacing – An Essential Learning Technique
I’m happy to report that the Spaced Practice summary page has been updated to include Declarative Learning (it had only included Procedural Learning before).
This update adds a summary of the research on its efficacy, including statistical results (effect sizes and their certainty) from meta-analyses and studies including >9,000 subjects. What’s more, given the existing literature we can slice it up between immediate performance (a.k.a. “acquisition”; i.e., the efficacy of “cramming”) and longer-term learning (a.k.a. “retention”), and for simple versus complex tasks, which reveals some interesting caveats regarding the efficacy of this classic study technique. There are cases where spacing might not always make a big difference, and maybe even worse than a massed approach.
What's Next?
It’s nice to check off something on the roadmap, but I’m barely getting started… so, on to the next one!
The plan is to continue reviewing the research to build out pages for: retrieval practice, interleaving, elaboration, and feedback. Then, while there are many more learning methods to cover (again, see the roadmap) I would like to take a break from that and put together an initial version of some skill learning frameworks and guidelines — then, finally start more of a marketing push. Strongly considering YouTube. We will see!
Meanwhile, subscribe, even just for a free membership, to stay updated!
