Training Tips – Memory Training for Retention


Boost memory retention with one easy task.

Memory Training for Retention

Teamings’ goal is to have successful meetings and trainings. Making sure our clients’ meetings become a success instead of a failure is a top priority. Just holding a training session doesn’t mean it’s going to be successful. That’s why we are always researching, testing and deploying strategies for effective meetings and training.

On average, people will forget 50% to 70% of what you teach them within 24 hours.

That’s a pretty disheartening thought, especially for a trainer or learning manager with an eye on R.O.I. Luckily, emerging research on how the human brain learns, remembers and forgets may provide the answers trainers need to increase ROI and otherwise make training effective. Here is one option based on scientific research that may help.

Fight the forgetting curve with boosters

The forgetting curve is a long standing scientific theory. First introduced in the late 1800’s by Hermann Ebbinghaus, the forgetting curve theory has been tested time and time again with similar results. Studies show that forgetting is an active and desirable process. Our brains simply can’t handle the mass amounts of data we encounter each day. In order to maintain processing power, the brain limits retention. If your brain can’t find a compelling reason for retaining data in the long term, that data is purged. Most ‘unimportant’ data is purged within 24 hours and as time goes on, more and more is forgotten.

The Forgetting Curve

So what does this mean for successful training meetings? The process of forgetting (or remembering) is not random. The brain remembers what it determines as important and forgets or hides what is only needed for the short term. Your job as a trainer, is to give a signal to your students’ brains. Let them know that the information you are teaching them will be important for future tasks.

How?

Send a ‘this is important’ signal by forcing the brain to recall the information with a ‘booster event’ shortly after the course. This booster event can be a simulation where students use the conceptual framework taught during the course to solve a problem or avoid a bad outcome, a multiple choice test, short answer quiz or the like. Whatever you decide, make sure the learner recalls the memory before it is filed as unimportant (within 24 hours).

forgetting curve with one boost

Booster events boost the forgetting curve. This allows the learner to remember more information over time. The more you force your participants to recall what was taught in your meeting, the more you boost the curve. One study found that by testing learners 3 times shortly after the event, learners retained 80% more information. This retention was even better than if the learner was forced to review the information multiple times. You can increase retention even further by providing feedback for the incorrect responses.

It’s interesting to note that by boosting the forgetting curve, you also help your students remember the entire learning experience – not just the content you put on the test.

forgetting curve with many boosts

If you want to really increase the memory retention of your meeting’s participants, consider that what you do after the course is just as important as what you do during the course. Do nothing and that’s what they’ll remember in 2 months – nothing. Provide a series of opportunities for the brain to recall the information you taught them and they will be more likely to remember.

If you are interested in learning more, check out Dr. Henry Roediger’s “Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning”.

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