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Cited by 47Memory Processes and InfluencesVisual and Cognitive Learning ProcessesInnovative Teaching and Learning Methods

Forgetting as the friend of learning: implications for teaching and self-regulated learning

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Bjork, Robert A., Bjork, Elizabeth L.·2019·Advances in Physiology Education
DOI 10.1152/advan.00001.2019
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Abstract

One of the “important peculiarities” of human learning (Bjork RA and Bjork EL. From Learning Processes to Cognitive Processes: Essays in Honor of William K. Estes, 1992, p. 35–67) is that certain conditions that produce forgetting—that is, impair access to some to-be-learned information studied earlier—also enhance the learning of that information when it is restudied. Such conditions include changing the environmental context from when some to-be-learned material is studied to when that material is restudied; increasing the delay from when something is studied to when it is tested or restudied; and interleaving, rather than blocking, the study or practice of the components of to-be-learned knowledge or skills. In this paper, we provide some conjectures as to why conditions that produce forgetting can also enable learning, and why a misunderstanding of this peculiarity of how humans learn can result in nonoptimal teaching and self-regulated learning.

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  1. Bjork RA, 1992, From Learning Processes to Cognitive Processes: Essays in Honor of William K. Estes, 2, 35

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Authors
Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
Bjork, Robert A.
ORCID
Venue
Advances in Physiology Education
Publisher
American Physiological Society
Published
2019-06-01
Volume
43
Issue
2
Pages
164-167
ISSN
  • 1043-4046 (ISSN-L)
  • 1522-1229
DOI
10.1152/advan.00001.2019
OpenAlex
W2935988327
Semantic Scholar
585ba42b3f081b962d9cb27c7b17a3d4322d7875
Cited by
47
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5
FWCI
2.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • AJP Advances in Physiology Education (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
Keywords
forgetting, restudy, student self-regulation, teaching, interleaving, context effects, lagged effects, blocking, human learning
MeSH terms
Humans, Learning, Memory, Mental Recall, Teaching

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