The spacing effect is the well-documented finding that information is remembered better in the long term when study of it is spread out over multiple sessions separated by time, rather than concentrated into a single session, a pattern often called distributed practice. It was first documented experimentally by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in his pioneering 1885 memory research, in which he found that spaced repetitions of nonsense syllables produced far better retention than the same number of repetitions massed together. The effect has been replicated across countless subsequent studies and is now one of the most robust findings in learning science, informing spaced-repetition study software and curriculum designs that deliberately revisit material after a delay rather than teaching it once and moving on.
Facts
Core ClaimFirst documented experimentally by Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885): information is retained better long-term when study is spread across multiple sessions rather than massed into one. 1 Evidence Standing Learning Type FAQs
Why would letting students forget between study sessions help them learn?
Spacing works because knowledge gets time to rest and be refreshed between sessions.
Spacing spreads study and retrieval opportunities out over time so that learning is not crammed all at once. Between sessions a student's knowledge has had time to rest and be refreshed, and teaching sources on this strategy put it plainly: forgetting is good for learning. The same sources add that a cumulative exam is not quite the same thing as spacing, because spacing has to be used throughout the semester and not only before the exam.
Connections
Developed By
Source Wikipedia: Hermann Ebbinghaus
In Approach
Source Spacing effect (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation- Core Claim: First documented experimentally by Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885): information is retained better long-term when study is spread across multiple sessions rather than massed into one.
- Origin Year: 1885
2. Spacing effect (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph
The spacing effect demonstrates that learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out.
Introduction
more information is encoded into long-term memory by spaced study sessions
Introduction, evidence standing
strong evidence that the lag effect is present when recalling word lists
Article text
The phenomenon was first identified by Hermann Ebbinghaus, and his detailed study of it was published in the 1885 book Über das Gedächtnis.
In Group: Spacing and Retrieval Practice Strategies, Lead
The spacing effect demonstrates that learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out.
View the SourceWikipedia: Hermann Ebbinghaus
Wikimedia FoundationDeveloped By: Hermann Ebbinghaus, LeadQuote, Developed By: Hermann Ebbinghaus, Lead
Ebbinghaus discovered the forgetting curve and the spacing effect.
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