What is the best way to preserve things according to science?

How do we save better? A team of psychologists from Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh in the US has shed new light on how we learn things and remember our experiences in the real world. Spoiler: It just depends on what we're trying to remember, according to their study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (banas).

Learning: Spacing effect that improves memorization

“Much previous work has shown that learning and memory benefit from spacing out study sessions. Explanation of the researchers in A I reported. For example, if you study the day before a test, you will likely remember information for the next day, but you will likely forget it in the following days. On the other hand, if you study for several days in a row before an exam, you are more likely to remember it for a long time.”

So this “divergence effect” It has proven itself in theory that, when the material we learn is repeated identically every time, this does not always translate into real life, when certain parameters of our experiences are likely to change. Imagine, for example, that you frequently go to a local coffee shop: many features will remain, but one element (such as a new server) may be different and thus change your memories.

Memory is affected Than It is learned and by The moment that It has been learned

How does the spacing effect work given this difference between experiments? To find out, the researchers subjected a group of participants to two experiments to test their memory. At different times of a 24-hour day (Experiment 1) or during a single work session (Experiment 2), volunteers had to learn either pairs of objects and scenes that were identical in each repetition, or pairs of identical and distinct objects.

The researchers were thus able to examine the effects of spacing on a time scale that was long – hours or days (Experiment 1) – or short – seconds or minutes (Experiment 2). Objective: Determine how memory is affected by both Than It is learned (whether it is exact repetition or there are variations) and by The moment that I have learned. A way for researchers to recreate real-world replication experiments, where some aspects remain but others are different.

Memory is better for items associated with different scenes

As a result, researchers just didn't notice it “Spaced learning benefited memory of items.”But that too “Memory was better for items associated with different scenes compared to those presented in the same scene each time.”. For example, if you want to remember the name of a new person, repeating their name while associating it with different information about the person can be effective.

“In contrast, we found that associative memory—memory about the item and the scene with which it was associated—benefited from stability. Spacing only benefited memory for pairs that were repeated exactly, and only if there were long enough gaps (hours or days) between study sessions.” “For example, if you're trying to remember a new person's name and something about them, such as their favorite food, it's best to repeat the name-food association several times, spacing out each repetition.”