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People ask themselves why they forget when they want to remember certain things. However, some other people remember just a few of the things they want to remember but the important question is Why do we even forget?. The answer is not far-fetched. Therefore, today, you and I will quickly take a look at some of the reasons why people especially students forget so you can easily make concious efforts to avoid them as much as possible.
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Firstly, most students forget because of paying poor attention to whatever is being taught. or not properly attending to what we wish to remember. Therefore what happens is that the experience does not make a strong enough impression on us. We gorget because we do not pay sufficient attention to what we remember in order to imprint it firmly on the mind. Therefore, a good memory depends on the attention we pay to what we want to remember as one cannot attend to more than one thing at a time. Therefore give full attention to what you wish to remember.
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Secondly, students easily forget because they do not revise what they have been taught or what they learn. it is however normal to forget most of what we have learned within a few days after learning it unless we consistently revise it to keep it fresh in mind. This is because much of what we learn is forgotten more slowly. Research have shown that after one hour, 56% of the material which we have learnt is forgotten but after nine hours only, a further 8% had been forgotten, after two days, 6% and only a further 7% after as long as one month. In order words, about 70% of the amount which was forgotten in the first month was forgotten in the first hour of the month.
Thirdly, interference is another reason why people forget. Studies have shown that other activities we pursue after learning something interfere with our ability to remember it. This means that we forget something we learn because we have learnt other things subsequently. The amountof forgetting depends on the similarity of the material learned on to a material learned in the past. Interference is most active when the interefering material is most similar to the material originally learned. Another way intereference occurs is when what has happened previously interferes with what is happening now. Likewise, work which precedes learning also tends to interfere with the retention of the learned material. What has happened before an experience cause us to forget it as well as what happened afterwards.