|
Van Ormer goes along with this. He explains that sleeping after studying gives best results because of the absence of the inhibition or obliteration of the learned material by the waking activity. He theorizes that another factor enters into it, that it is possible that the waking activity not only inhibits and obliterates what has been learned, but that it also prevents or holds in check a preservation or consolidation process which continues for a while in the nervous system after the impression of the learned material. This preservation or consolidation process may often be at its highest point for the first part of the hour following learning. He suggests that it is also possible that the process of waking and the activity that takes place before there is any relearning is inhibitory as well. Still, he points out, results show there is a preservative process. Van Ormer offers the explanation that perhaps recall is benefited by the refreshing effect of sleep on the organism, but notes that the same results were achieved whether the subject slept one hour or eight hours. Moreover, the results were the same one hour after the study period regardless of whether the hour was spent sleeping or waking. The results suggested, on the whole, that a primary factor in forgetting is the action of the interpolated activity, because it inhibits a consolidation or preservation process and produces inhibition and obliteration of learned material. Retention was, for the most part, better after four or eight hours of sleep than after the same time interval of waking. Little is forgotten during sleep. This appears to be |
|||
|
