Around 120 years ago, Ebbinghaus began his study of memory. He concentrated on studying how quickly the human mind can remember information. One result of his research is known as the total time hypothesis, (1)__________________________. This can be taken as our first rule of learning. Although it is usually true that studying for 4 hours is better than studying for 1, there is still the question of how to use the 4 hours. For example, (2)____________________________? The answer, as you may have suspected, is that it is better to spread out the study times. This phenomenon through which we can learn more efficiently by dividing our practice time is known as the distribution of practice effect. Thus, our second rule of learning is this. It’s better to study fairly briefly but often. But we are not finished yet. We haven’t considered how we should study over very short periods of time. (3)__________________________. Should you look at the same word in rapid succession or look at the word and then have some delay before you look at it again? The answer is it is better to space up the presentations of the word you are to learn.
