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 Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationSpacing effect, introductory sectionQuote, Spacing effect, introductory section
The phenomenon was first identified by Hermann Ebbinghaus, and his detailed study of it was published in the 1885 book Uber das Gedachtnis.
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