Forgetting curve
A curve that illustrates the decline of memory retention in time. A typical graph of the forgetting curve shows that humans tend to halve their memory of newly learned knowledge in a matter of days or weeks unless they consciously review the learned material.
The speed of forgetting depends on a number of factors such as the difficulty of the learned material (e.g. how meaningful it is), its representation (see: mnemonic techniques), physiological factors such as stress and sleep. Interestingly, the basal forgetting rate differs little between individuals. The difference in performance (e.g. at school) can be explained by mnemonic representation skills. This means that some kids are able to "imagine" memories in the right way while others are not. Basic training in mnemonic techniques can help overcome those differences in part.
The first significant study in this area was carried out by Hermann Ebbinghaus and published as "Über das Gedaechtnis" in 1885 (later translated into English as "Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology"). Ebbinghaus studied the memorisation of nonsense syllables, such as "WID" and "ZOF". By repeatedly testing himself after various time periods and recording the results, he was the first to describe the shape of the forgetting curve.
Forgetting curve is most steep for nonsensical material such as that studied by Ebbinghaus. On the other hand, it is nearly flat for vivid or traumatic memories. The flattness of the curve is not necessarily evidence for the decrease in the forgetting rate, but can be taken as evidence of implicit repetition (e.g. reliving memories) that indefinitely restores memory traces.
In a typical schoolbook application (e.g. learning word pairs), most of students show the retention of 90% after 3-6 days (depending on the material). This means that, in this period, the forgetting curve "falls" by 10%.