Herman Ebbinghaus

The Forgetting Curve of Herman Ebbinghaus

German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer in educational psychology research, is considered the discoverer of the classical forgetting curve. He discovered that newly learned things could be fully reproduced, but as time passed, could ever reproduce less knowledge. In addition, he discovered that this curve eventually leveled off to a constant.

Further investigation yielded the insight that the gradient of the curve differs per person. Herman Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, shows how quickly we have forgotten newly learned material, and is the basis for the continuous learning principle. For some people the forgetting  curve is more favorable to visually presented material, by others for auditory materials.

De vergeetcurve van Herman Ebbinghaus

Repetition is the Case

The results of scientific research of Professor Ebbinghaus are still relevant and are widely used to teach effectively:

  • Create meaningful-, understandable materials, build associations and then apply learrning
  • Use visual equipment for support and possibly auditive technologies
  • Plan particularly repetition of the materials, particularly shortly after the first imprint, then with spaced repetition intervals

De vergeetcurve van Herman Ebbinghaus

Security Awareness App

The Security Awareness App Avantess-IAM is the tool of choice not to let go and lose knowledge, and supports the theory of Ebbinghaus. The participant receives a weekly series of questions regarding the current theme or topic on his / her smartphone, tablet or PC. This can be the case for example, even after an initial eLearning or training . Because knowledge is reproduced more often, it remains better preserved and is longer-lasting.

How to beat the Forgetting Curve?

Visit www.securityawarenessapp.com for all information or contact us: Support at Security Awareness App.