EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Experiment no. 8

Relearning

By:

Gardoce, Rikki Marie M.

February 17, 2020

 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Relearning

Objective: To determine how much information was retained after a period of time.

Introduction: According to Psychology Dictionary, relearning is a “method of

regaining knowledge of material that has been learned or forgotten.” As

per Ebbinghaus (1913), the extensive repetitive practice is the key for

knowledge to improve more and last long. Therefore, the cliché saying,

“practice makes perfect” is always true and will never be wrong.

Ebbinghaus (1913) first studied forgetting with he himself as the subject.

In his method, forgetting is measured by the reduction of number trials for

relearning or known as saving method. It led him to the conclusion that

forgetting is fastest after learning a material and has to do with the time.

On this account, he believed that relearning is the solution to this

phenomenon.

According to Ebbinghaus (1913), there is an increased retention in

the spacing effect, wherein practice sessions are spaced apart however, it

can decrease if sessions are massed in succession.

In relearning session, there is an augmented speed and

performance, given the fact that a smaller number of practices are

 necessary to reach an expected level of mastery. Such time saving during

relearning represents a useful measure of retention dynamics (Bahrick,

1979; Ebbinghaus, 1885/1913; Nelson, 1985). In more simple words,

relearning enables an individual to transfer the learned material from the

short-term memory to the long- term memory which is the long-lasting

storehouse of knowledge.

Different studies shown that sleep has a role to a faster relearning.

Bell et al. (2014), using a comparable design, found that “neither sleep

alone nor time between learning and relearning alone was sufficient to

improve long-term memory.” In a recent study of Mazza et. al (2016), it

showed that there is a positive correlation between time spent sleeping and

relearning speed. The researcher used relearning paradigm (Nelson, 1985)

to obtain a very detailed measure of the effects of sleep on memory. He

suggested that longer and faster relearning and retention will be enhanced

through sleeping. According to Diekelmann & Born (2010), sleep, aside

from the fact that it can actively consolidates new memories, it can also

protect memory from the major reasons of forgetting: memory decay and

intereference phenomena.

Apparatus: Test papers

Procedure: SET I
 Ss will have to take an exam about the Psychodynamic Theory of

Personality for about 50 minutes. They will check the paper to find out their

scores. After two days, they will have to take the exam again. Again, they

will check their papers to see their scores. The students will now compare

their previous score to their recent score.

SET II

E will conduct an examination about the Trait Theories of Personality. The

examination will take place for about 50 minutes. After the exam, the Ss

will check their papers to get the scores. Their scores will be converted to

percentage. The lowest is 60 percent and the highest is 100 percent. Three

days after taking the exam, they will have to answer the same exam again.

The scores will be compared to see if there are retained information.

Results: Original learning trials – Relearning trials x 100

Original Trials

54 – 88 x 100
54

= 63 percent

Discussion: Looking at the results, it can be noted that there is a significant

difference between the first and second trial raw scores. The latter is far

better than the former scores. The huge differences between scores are

most likely due to the student’s retrieval of information with the aid of the

answer key during the checking of papers. The experimenter discussed

every item’s correct answer and so the subjects were able to relearn it in
that way. However, subjects’ mistakes in the test paper were the possible

information that have been forgotten after some time and may be due to its

infrequent use or retrieval that impaired subjects’ long-lasting storehouse

of knowledge. It maybe also because of the subjects’ failure to practice

such information so it couldn’t transfer from the short term to the long-

term memory.

Clearly, there was an augmented performance when the subjects

retake the exam because they were already aware of the correct answers

that were being discussed last two or three days so they tried to rehearse it

in their minds so they couldn’t forget it in retaking the test. It can also be

observed that most of the subjects finished the second trial faster than the

first because of sense of familiarity.

Biologically speaking, old age is one of the reasons for forgetting

because of worn out brain cells. However, being a better learner does not

solely depend on age, rather, it is based on the things that we do that

develops our cognitive skills and memory. As a student, relearning is very

helpful because it really helps me to achieve mastery of the lesson.

Relearning helps me to retain information that I have learned and prevents

me from being forgetful. One way of effective relearning is establishing a

study habit. Having a fixed schedule to study lessons strengthen my

encoding, storage and retrieval of information. Relearning also prevents

me to cram especially when there is an exam. Indeed, relearning is the key

to become a better learner for students like me.

References:

Bahrick, H. P. (1979). Maintenance of knowledge: Questions about memory we forgot to ask.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 296–308.
doi:10.1037/00963445.108.3.296

Bell, M. C., Kawadri, N., Simone, P. M., & Wiseheart, M. (2014). Long-term memory, sleep,
and
the spacing effect. Memory, 22, 276–283. doi:10.1080/09658211.2013.778294

Diekelmann, S., & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews
Neuroscience,
11, 114–126. doi:10.1038/nrn2762

Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York, NY:

Teachers College, Columbia University. (Original work published 1885)

Mazza, S. et. al (2016). Relearn Faster and Retain Longer: Along With Practice, Sleep Makes
Perfect. Laboratoire d’Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, EA 3082, Université Lyon 2,
Lyon, France.

Nelson, T. O. (1985). Ebbinghaus’s contribution to the measurement of retention: Savings during

relearning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11,
472–479. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.11.3.472