Primacy & Recency Effect in Training

How to Use Memory Factors to Boost Training, Retention and Recall

The brain’s ability to remember information is known as retention. The ability to select and use information when needed is called recall. The distinction is important because people may temporarily lose the ability to recall, but can still retain the information in long term memory.

Learning is defined as change in long term memory and so your intention as a trainer is to use any strategies that help learners retain and recall information as well as they can.

There are seven factors that contribute significantly to retention and recall. Review your training courses to ensure that they are structured in a way that takes advantages of these factors in order to maximize learning.

The memory factors are as follows:

First

People are more likely to remember the beginning of events more than the middle and the end. For example, recalling the opening scene of a movie is easier than the rest.

For your training, this means that you must cover the most important information first. Anything you want delegates to remember better should be covered early on. This applies to both beginning of the course and similarly to beginning of the session.

Last

People are more likely to remember the end of an event more than the middle of it.

A review phase at the end is therefor essential. A summary of key points helps retention and hence recall in the future. Review the content at the end of each session and also review key points from all sessions at the end of the course.

The First and Last factors also suggest why taking breaks is critical. More breaks help you shorten session length and hence end up having more beginnings and ends. These are more likely to be remembered. Session lengths should be between 20 min and 50 min, maximum an hour. There is a significant decline in memory for sessions longer than an hour.

Association

The human brain is constantly looking to create patterns out of everything. It does this because the sheer amount of information processed is huge and the only meaningful way to retain information is to associate one data with another. This way, the brain can search a large network of associations quickly and efficiently to retrieve the specific information recalled. People therefore find it easier to recall information that is associated with something.

Don’t present information in isolation. Make it easy for delegates to associate it with something else. Link it to something they already know. As you go through a course, provide information in a structured way that shows exactly how each piece connects with another. This helps delegates form associations in their heads and it improves retention.

Novelty

Just as the brain tries to create a pattern out of everything, it automatically looks and responds strongly to anomalies. Anything considered out of context stands out because it doesn’t fit any pattern. This in turn makes it more memorable simply because it is outstanding and novel.

Look for anything unusual in the subject you are teaching and highlight it. Bring out outrageous, shocking, outstanding and bizarre elements. Use these as hooks to associate it with other useful data. For example, you can tell a story where the protagonist does something completely outrageous. You have now made the story more memorable. If the story is about a key concept delegates need to learn, they are more like to remember it. Another example is use of props. If you use an unusual prop to demonstrate a key lesson, delegates are more likely to remember that lesson for its novelty. Besides, the association helps recall. Every time they see that prop, they remember your course and how you used it to teach them a lesson. This refreshes their memory and facilitates better recall.

Recency

People recall events that have happened more recently more successfully. What happened an hour ago is easier to remember than what happened yesterday and certainly easier to recall than what happened a month ago. A simple test is to recall the full list of movies you have watched this year. You would be amazed how few are remembered and that most are more recent.

Recency suggests it is important to review lessons at the end of each session and at the end of the course. As you teach one session after another, delegates will start to forget what you covered earlier and only remember the most recent ones. A review can help you refresh their memories sand maximize learning.

Repetition

As you will know already, repetition, and in particular, spaced repetition, is quite powerful in refreshing memory and recall.

You must incorporate repetition into your course and assignments. The more that repetition is designed into the course, the easier it is to maximize learning. Hence, this goes beyond reminding yourself to repeat something several times so that the delegates get it. It means looking at each topic and asking yourself how many times it gets covered in a course. If you just mention it and move on, it is not enough. Instead, consider teaching it first, then getting learners to discuss it and expand on it later in an example related to the topic. Ask them to participate in an exercise, recap and then test them. At the end review the topic again. Now, you have a much stronger chance to make it stick.

Chunking

Working memory is quite limited. For learning to take place, which is the development of long-term memory of a topic, it pays to free up working memory resources. One way to do this is through chunking. This helps people to cluster information into chunks and remember them. It accelerates the process of transferring data into long term memory instead of dealing with too many isolated data. Chunking also helps with association.

Go through the course and see what information can be chunked or grouped together. In other words, look for similar content that can be put together and offered as one unit. Consider using mnemonics and memory tools to facilitate the process.

HR & Training Consultant

Sahar Samy