Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.
Preparation
In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus studied his own memory. He wanted to know how quickly he forgot new information. He gave himself tests after different periods of time to see how much he forgot each time. The result is called The Forgetting Curve.
[1] We forget the fastest in the first 24 hours.
[2] And then we forget more and more but the speed slows down over time.
[3] After about six days, we have forgotten most of the new information.
[4] If we revise the information …
[5] ... we make the memory stronger and we slow down the speed of forgetting.
[6] If we revise again and again, we can leave longer and longer periods of time between revisions.
Time is not the only thing that makes us forget something. If we are tired or under stress, we forget faster. If the information was difficult to understand we will forget it faster too. But things that are very important or meaningful to us are easier to remember.
Hello ubaid332,
The worksheet is now available. Thanks again for letting us know that it was missing.
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Kirk
LearnEnglish team
What do you do to remember things?
To remember things, I normally note the information and try to look it many times. Revision is the most effective method to remember information for a long time. As studied in this topic, a human forget every new information speedly in first 24 hours but with the help of revision, the information retain in our memory. So for the best practice it is important to revise or save the information in somewhere to remember it later.
Hi there,
where can I find out the right answers here?
Hello Vanessa333,
To see the answers to the interactive exercises, first you have to press the Finish button. After you see your score, the Finish button turns into the See answers button. If you press See answers, you will see the correct answers.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
It´s very important to talk about this topic with students and people who wants to improve their memory. the students are stressed all the time normally, in my opinion. ´cause they don´t know how to study effectively. In my case i´ve used this technique since 2 years ago using an app called Anki. I suggest to use it.
This lesson is very important to me. I would like to agree that to revise is the best way to maintain our memory stronger.
Ana da Graça Tambo
Maputo, Mozambique
As the article said when we are under stress or tired we forget faster and that happens to me a lot, so I started to sleep early and I went to the gym in order to help and make my memory stronger.
we can slow down the time of forgetting also by revising our important and meaningful informations. otherwise if the information is difficult or hard to understand we can note it in our agenda.
My memory works strangely. I often remember unimportant things, like what I saw about friends or other familiar people on Instagram, or stories and facts that other people told me. But I can't remember well-known historical facts, dates, figures, geography, and something really important. Maybe the problem is in focus. I was always interested in people, and maybe it's a resolving factor.
Honestly, I don't experience any difficulties with remembering things, and usually, I just keep everything in mind that is about to happen. However, if I know that something is very important, I write this down in my notes in order not to forget it. For example, I had an appointment with my doctor last week, and as this meeting was very significant for me, I asked my mom to remind me about this meeting on the actual date of it. And thanks to my mom I didn't forget about my appointment and was there on time.
In my opinion, revision is the best way to remember something effectively.