Primacy-Recency Effect

Among all of the material in this week's reading, there was one facet of memory that hit me due primarily to the relevancy and timeliness of the information. Sousa writes about the Primacy-Recency effect and describes it as "in a learning episode, we tend to remember best that which comes first and remember second best that which comes lace. We tend to remember least that which comes just past ht middle of the episode," (p. 100).

Recently we have been contending with this aspect of training among our clients. Many of our clients come to our organization for our help in crafting and developing eLearning training on their behalf. Lately, many have come to us and blatantly said; "we don't want any single module to be more than 20 minutes long." What's confusing about this is that they have some modules that are many times longer than 20 minutes. "Just split it up but make sure nothing is over 20 minutes." They have settled on this 20 minute time frame like a ship wreck survivor to a piece of flotsam.

(My office White Board at the moment)

Earlier in the text, Sousa writes about the time limits for processing new information, for adolescents and adults to be about 10 to 20 minutes, (p. 54). I'm sure that studies like the one that Sousa used for that information have filtered down to our clients and therefore they want all of their training to be 20 minutes. Is it that big a deal? It kind of is? The last one we reviewed on behalf of a client was a 48 minute training that they had cut in half to be two, 24 minute modules. The problem? They did not break it at a natural break, they did not separate the two halves into parts that made sense, nor did they necessarily do anything beyond making the learner push one button to close out the first module and another button to start the next. So instead of providing the learner a natural break and giving them time to reflect, learn, or recall, they just had them push two buttons and re-engage the training. It was a completely artificial and unneeded break. Any learner would have said it was silly to have the break there and they would have rather just continued on.

As with so many aspects of this subject there is nuance, exceptions, and no hard and fast rules. Last week I wrote about the time it might take a vacuum truck to fill 3/4 full a viscous, water-like substance from a pit while parked on level ground. Well, what if there is debris in the pit? What if the pump hasn't been maintained? What if the valve is stuck have closed? What if the liquid is viscous on top but sludge on the bottom? All of these factors make the 15 min time standard incorrect. Just as saying "make all training 20 minutes" a poor standard.

I really like that Sousa introduced the Primacy-Recency Effect and showed how the same basic cycle of "prime time" and "down-time" applies regardless of 20 minute sessions or 40 minute sessions (p. 101). There is more nuance in training design and development than just keeping things to 20 minutes. There are other techniques and tools we as training developers can use to help influence retention and recall than just 20 minute modules. Good to know, sure, but being able to add this to the mix of techniques and train effectively is what will make our organization unique. I look forward to showing our clients how we can utilize the Primacy-Recency effect to help make their training more effective.

I wonder how many of the others in this group have seen this type of subservience to training duration time limits? Or how many have helped improve their training through the Primacy-Recency effect and how it might have gone?

References

Sousa, D.A. (2016). How the brain learns, (5th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

More on 20 Min Training

Regarding my post on Primacy-Recency effect, our process provides us an opportunity to discuss with our clients how best to utilize the 20 minute standard. For example we may try to keep a module to 20 minutes then switch to another and then another 20 minute module then do a wrap-up video that includes aspects of all of the modules at the top of the hour. This will allow us to keep information fresh for the learner but also allow for a reinforcement exercise that ties all of the different modules together. 

We have some training that due to compliance mandates takes several days to a full week of computer based and classroom learning to complete. Needless to say it's quite tough to keep the learners interest throughout the entire training. As I've mentioned before we use several techniques and tools to try to keep things fresh but finding a way to provide modules in a succinct effective manner and then tie back to them later so we can promote reinforcement should be a real game changer.

Just keeping it to 20 minutes is not in and of itself a good solution what I find interesting is how many of our clients come to us and say here keep it to 20 minutes that's the solution without giving it much more thought. I look forward to talking to them about the prime and prime and see recent see your fat and finding other ways to meet their needs without having arbitrary time.

2022 Goals

One of the goals I've been given for this next year is to further establish myself as a training subject matter expert in my field and in our industry. 

Sounds a tad ambiguous doesn't it. How does one go about that?

Well, one thing I'm doing is speaking . . . a lot. 

The picture above is of a community college in Pasadena where last week I was a "featured speaker." That's not a bad start is it?

It was a speech to about twenty to twenty-five students at their technical college. I thought it went well. It was supposed to be a bigger crowd, but having a smaller group allowed for me to "work the room" a bit. To walk around, to call on people, to be a game show type presenter. I think it was a success. Question and answer time lasted about half an hour. Then when it was over the organizer asked me to come back next month and do it all again. Being called back for a second act is a good sign, right?

It was really just a warm up act. 

I have to give two major speeches this week. One is to an organization filled with safety professionals. It's on our virtual reality work and the studies we've done. Some of what I spoke about at the technical college will come into play, but there will be a lot more depth to this one. 

The other day I wrote about the book I'm reading about the P-38 Lightning and Race of Aces (see HERE). The authors contention is that the P-38 changed the air battle landscape and added to the winning of the war. I'm going to reference that in the introduction of my speech. 

Another thing I'm going to discuss . . . the primacy recency effect (see HERE). This adult learning theory about attention was a huge hit with the students. I think I'll use it again with the safety folks. 

I also have ANOTHER speech later that same evening, this time with a bunch of painting, coatings, and insulating organization representatives. What am I discussing? Innovations again. Gonna use just about the same presentation as I used for the safety folks. 

Lots and lots of speeches . . . that's a pretty good start at establishing my credentials, no? Feel free to join! I'm always happy to have more smiling friendly faces in the audience!