Wondering if any educational/cognitive people might have any idea…
If one is performing a memorization task, like say something mundane like memorizing vocabulary of a foreign language, what is the best way to reinforce the material? Should you quiz yourself immediately after learning the material, or wait some length of time to see what obviously stuck immediately from what obviously didn’t? I’m just wondering if there is any generally accepted model for this.
Not sure how helpful this will be, but a recent SciAm article on memory (rats or rabbits, can’t remember), showed that a 10 or 15 minute interval between repeated exposures to the same inputs was optimal for creating long term pathways between neurons.
I’ve been reading a lot of “brain books” lately.
Think in terms of a geometric time sequence for “refreshing” a memory.
Think of it in 1 hour, then 2 hours, then 4 hours, etc.
The constant multiplier is up to you based on how your wetware works and the importance of the data being memorized.
Other factors: A night’s sleep is crucial. It takes 2-4 days for a memory to get fixed in long term memory.
(In other words, take the basic study habit of a US college student and do the opposite.)