Herman Ebbinghaus: The Forgetting Curve

German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus is famous for his studies on forgetting and what we call the Forgetting Curve. Ebbinghaus was interested in seeing how much information is forgotten after it is encoded and in what amount of time. He conducted an experiment in which participants were to memorize nonsense syllables in three letter combinations. They practiced for 20 minutes a day for 31 days.

His findings illustrate two distinct patterns in forgetting:

Much of what we forget is forgotten soon after it is learned. This depends on how well it was encoded, how deeply it was processed, and how often it was rehearsed.
The amount of forgetting eventually levels off. If information is not quickly forgotten it is less likely to be forgotten.

Diagram of the Forgetting Curve

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION