The brain is a filter, rejecting stimulus that repeats too soon or too late. MasterMind^TM is technology for finding the best time to repeat, when the brain is sensitive. To learn touch typing, for example, a student needs more than 25 hours with "intelligent" software now on the market--or only 5 hours with MasterMind Typing.

Reference Notes

1. The lag " . . . effect is highly robust, showing up under a variety of conditions and on a number of measures of memory." Johnston, Wm. A., & Uhl, C. N., The contributions of encoding effect and variability to the spacing effect on free recall, 2 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 153-160, 1976. Such measures and conditions include " . . . recall, recognition memory, and frequency-judgment tasks, using pictures, words, sentences, nonsense syllables, and letters." Hintzman, D. L., The Psychology of Learning and Memory, W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, 1978, p. 332.

2. Kandel, Eric R., and Schwartz, James H., Molecular Biology of Learning: Modulation of Transmitter Release, 218 Science 439, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., 29 Oct. 1982.

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The "Spacing Effect"

Cognitive psychologists have found improved learning with increasing delay between stimuli--up to a point of excess delay, after which a stimulus loses effect. Researchers call this the "spacing" or "lag" effect on learning. Their experiments employ various paradigms and measures of retention.¹

While studying the neurochemistry of learning, other scientists have found the spacing effect in mollusks too.² It is in the chemistry of all animals with a central nervous system.

Researchers have seen the spacing effect as an outcome rather than a means of teaching. Still, if one could schedule repetition for peak retention, the advantage is clear.

Computer Application

The difficulties of predicting a retention peak include variations in: learners, stimuli, the stage of learning for each learner and fact, and the lesson environment. During a lesson, the vital parameters change in rapid, complex ways that defy tracking by humans. [more]