Massed practice can be defined as learning with little to no intervals between successive bouts of learning. Distributed practice on the other hand is learning with reasonably long intervals in between separate occasions of learning. There has been much discussion in the psychological field regarding which method of learning is best for retention of information and there have been many experiments conducted to test which method is best. While much literature regarding the effects of distributed versus massed practice has been published there have not been quite as many quantitative studies conducted. Four major quantitative studies however do exist and all four of these studies have concluded that “distributed practice produces an overall
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2006). Though both distributed and massed practice have their limitations as well as their advantages it has been found that distributed practice is the more effective of the two because it allows for better retention of material that is being studied. The spacing effect was first identified by a psychologist by the name of Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885 when he discovered that he could memorize a 12 syllable list by studying it 68 times and the next day giving himself a refresher of seven repetitions before testing himself. He then learned that he could study for much less time, half to be exact, simply by spreading out his learning throughout three days. When spacing out his studying throughout a period of three days he would only have to study the list 38 times along with the seven repetition refresher before testing himself. This discovery by Ebbinghaus has lead to several other experiments aiming to measure the same concept of the benefits of distributed practice versus massed practice. One of these experiments was conducted by Geoffrey Keppel in 1967 and involved college students learning nonsense syllables and adjectives, the subjects were to study this list in order to be able to view the nonsense syllable and identify its corresponding adjective.
2006). Though both distributed and massed practice have their limitations as well as their advantages it has been found that distributed practice is the more effective of the two because it allows for better retention of material that is being studied. The spacing effect was first identified by a psychologist by the name of Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885 when he discovered that he could memorize a 12 syllable list by studying it 68 times and the next day giving himself a refresher of seven repetitions before testing himself. He then learned that he could study for much less time, half to be exact, simply by spreading out his learning throughout three days. When spacing out his studying throughout a period of three days he would only have to study the list 38 times along with the seven repetition refresher before testing himself. This discovery by Ebbinghaus has lead to several other experiments aiming to measure the same concept of the benefits of distributed practice versus massed practice. One of these experiments was conducted by Geoffrey Keppel in 1967 and involved college students learning nonsense syllables and adjectives, the subjects were to study this list in order to be able to view the nonsense syllable and identify its corresponding adjective.