Memory Depends on ‘Spacing Effect’ and Variation

Memory has puzzled scholars since the dawn of civilization. Find out how new research shows that spacing out study periods, along with varying the context of the item we’re trying to remember, improves our memories.

My dad had a joke. “As we get older, we lose two things. The first thing is our memory, and I forget what the second thing is.”

He was a singer, and he’d use that joke if he forgot some song lyrics. I’m getting to the age where I find myself resorting to that line myself from time to time.

We all have a memory, but humanity has always had trouble understanding and explaining how our memories work. Plato thought memories resided in our immortal soul.

Scientific History of Memory Studies

As usual, Aristotle was more practical, thinking that memory had something to do with the way our senses interact. Hermann Ebbinghaus was one of the first scientists to use scientific experiments to study how memory works.