Temporal Spacing is the Friend of Memory Formation

Memories play critical roles in our lives. Perhaps their importance is best appreciated when we start losing them. Making strong memories is beneficial for our day-to-day activities and for future planning. Most memories require repetitions or practice. Temporally spaced repetitions lead to better memory as compared to massed repetitions. This spacing effect is well established using several different learning tasks. This article discusses better memory formation by spaced training in several tasks at the behavioural level. Its potential neural mechanisms as revealed with brain imaging, and its beneficial effects in clinical conditions are also discussed. Further research needed to fully understand spacing effect is also discussed.