Section 05

Forgetting

Forgetting has a shape that replicates and a set of quantities that do not travel. These entries cover the curve, the material it was measured on, and the account of remembering as reconstruction that replaced the replay model.

The Ebbinghaus curve — FIG. 01A single learning episode with no return visit is the condition the curve describes.Photo: RDNE Stock project / Pexels

Entries in this section

2 of the register’s 21 entries.

The full register ↗

The Ebbinghaus curveHermann Ebbinghaus memorised nonsense syllables on himself through the 1880s and produced psychology's first quantitative law.Shape replicates
Bartlett's reconstructionRemembering (1932) showed recall is reconstruction shaped by expectation, not replay.Replicates broadly

Other sections

Retrieval

Testing as a learning event.

Spacing

Why distributed beats massed.

Interleaving

Mixing problem types.

Cognitive Load

What working memory is competing for.