Abstract
Repeated learning improves memory. Temporally distributed (“spaced”) learning can be twice as efficient than massed learning. Importantly, learning success is a non-monotonic maximum function of the spacing interval between learning units. Further optimal spacing intervals seem to exist at different time scales from seconds to days. We briefly review the current state of knowledge about this “spacing effect” and then discuss very similar but so far little noticed spacing patterns during a form of synaptic plasticity at the cellular level, called long term potentiation (LTP). The optimization of learning is highly relevant for all of us. It may be realized easily with appropriate spacing. In our view, the generality of the spacing effect points to basic mechanisms worth for coordinated research on the different levels of complexity.
Highlights
THE SPACING EFFECT Our ability to store information and to use it in a reflexive way is essential for the successful interaction with our environment
GENERALITY OF THE SPACING EFFECT Spacing effects have been found with a variety of test paradigms including free recall, cued recall, and recognition memory, and for a multitude of learning materials, like sense and nonsense syllables, words, word pairs, pictures, arithmetic rules, scientific, and mathematical concepts, or scientific terms (e.g., Ebbinghaus, 1913; Dempster, 1996)
long term potentiation (LTP) is induced in phases (LTP 1-3) with increasing time constants for Learning seems to take place in phases with optimal spacing intervals memory performance (e.g., Lynch, 2004; Raymond, 2007)
Summary
Reviewed by: Michael Herzog, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Repeated learning improves memory. LTP is an enhancement of a chemical synapse between two neurons, lasting from minutes to months or longer It is typically induced by high frequency stimulation (“HFS”) or by stimulation protocols with simultaneous pre- and postsynaptic neural stimulation (e.g., Cooke and Bliss, 2006). The number of pulses, their frequency, the number of stimulation units, their duration and the duration of the spacing intervals between units can differ between studies and seem to be differentially efficient in both cellular LTP and behavioral learning. The memory performance strongly depends on the learning protocol: Protocols with temporal spaced stimulation trains lead to longer lasting
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