I can't recall where I read that it might - by easing the formation and usage of generalities and highlighting exceptions. We do seem to be able to learn and function while forgetting almost everything we experience - single days, weeks or even entire years.. but I'm not particularly happy with that explanation.
First it is a mountain, then it isn't a mountain, then it is a mountain again. :fnord:
Don't forget the part where forgetting meaningless details allows for the recall of important ones without having to flip through our heads like an extremely overstuffed filing cabinet.
What you saw before might be related to reinforcement, going over things multiple times makes them easier to remember. It's possible that forgetting aid in learning in that it makes a person both more likely and more able to go over material a second time.
Quote from: Captain Utopia on June 16, 2010, 06:26:03 AM
Does forgetting aid learning?
I can't recall where I read that it might -
:mittens:
:lulz:
:argh!: But at the same time, it's not like I did learn anything I could recall later :wink:
I guess there's no way to answer this question without, say, building an AI which had perfect recollection.
Is it that forgetting aids learning, or that learning necessitates forgetting?
Or is forgetting just a side-effect of our squishy brain, and it's a miracle that we function at all?
http://frank.itlab.us/forgetting/
Read the "Curve of Forgetting" section lower on the page.
Quote from: Telarus on June 21, 2010, 10:12:49 PM
http://frank.itlab.us/forgetting/
Read the "Curve of Forgetting" section lower on the page.
Huh... I interpret that as: "How to learn despite the tendency to forget almost everything"
That's the point. Do you really want to remember every cough and chair squeek from the lecture 3 weeks ago when you're taking the mid-term and mentally scanning back for the specific name of Mediterranean 'Orientalizing-Era' female sculptures with stiff poses, and stylized, highly patterned hair?
Or does AIDS forget learning :fnord:
I don't think forgetting helps with learning
I think when your uncomfortable, you know you are learning something (until you can make it comfortable)