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This article throws light upon the top three methods used for measuring retention. The methods are: 1. Recall 2. Recognition 3. Saving.
Method # 1. Recall:
Recall is a method used for measuring retention which involves the verbal reproduction or repetition of learnt material. It is basically of two types – serial recall and free recall. In serial recall learnt material is reproduced often in the order in which it was learnt or following a specific order. Many of us can recall certain material only in a particular order. For example, if we have to locate a name in the telephone directory or word in the dictionary starting with ‘Res-‘ we cannot locate it instantly.
We mentally say the alphabets starting from A up to R and flip the pages making sure that R comes after letters O, P, Q and before letters S,T and so on. Similarly, there are people who when asked the question what is twelve multiplied by seven equivalent to (12 X 7 =?) tend to go over the arithmetic table of twelve from the beginning and only then can recall the correct answer.
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In free recall, however, chunks or pieces of learnt material may be recalled freely without following any specific order. For example, every one may not go through the whole arithmetic table to recall the answer of twelve multiplied by seven. Some may reproduce the answer instantly, i.e. without following a specific order.
Method # 2. Recognition:
Recognition is evidenced when recall is either weak or absent. For instance, though you have been passing through a particular street every evening you may not recall that there was a building at a particular spot, but when you find a vacant land (because the building has been demolished) you will suddenly recognise that there was some structure or building and the land was not vacant earlier.
This shows that the image of a structure or a building has been retained and present all along but it needed a different experience, vacant land, to make you remember that there was a building once. A classical example of this process is seen in multiple choice test.
This test is often used to measure retention through recognition. If you are asked in which country the leaning tower is located, you may not remember. But if you are asked to choose your answer from a) England, b) France, c) Italy and d) Germany, you will immediately recognize Italy as the answer. This shows that unless you encounter the word, event or experience or it is presented before you, recognition does not take place. Thus, we see that in this type of retention some sort of a suggestion or clue is presented, unlike recall.
Method # 3. Saving:
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The saving method is also called method of relearning. Though we may not recall or recognise the material learnt once, we realise that if we learn it again we can pick it up very soon, understand and master it. For instance, a student who learns his lessons perfectly may be unable to recall them six or seven months later. But when he starts to relearn or revise the lesson he will be able to grasp and reproduce everything with ease.
He may also consume much less time to do so, compared to what he did the first time when he learnt his lessons. H. E. Burtt tried to demonstrate this method. He taught Greek to a fifteen-month old infant by reading twenty lines of Greek poetry to him over and over at various intervals until he was three years old.
At this point, however, poetry reading was discontinued and for the next five years the child had no contact with Greek. Later, at the age of eight, he was given Greek poetry to learn. Some of the lines were what he had learnt as an infant and others were new.
He had apparently forgotten his experience with Greek as a baby; he could not recall or recognise any of the lines. But the specific lines which had been read to him in infancy were much easier for him to learn than those that were completely new. Thus, we see that recall, recognition, and saving methods are very good yardsticks to measure retention.