Remembering the news: Modeling retention data from a study with 14,000 participants

What is it about?

In this study, more than 14,000 participants answered open-ended and multiple-choice questions about news events that had happened between 1 day and 2 years before answering the internet questionnaire. We examined how quickly participants forgot the news events and whether the rate with which news events were forgotten depended on how well the events had been learned initially. Whereas it was found that forgetting followed the classic retention function, with a steep decline in the beginning and a more gradual decline later on, the rate of forgetting did not depend on initial learning.

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Why is it important?

Whereas many studies examine forgetting in the laboratory, this study investigated forgetting in a more natural setting by using recent news events. Furthermore, by offering the questionnaire on the internet, many participants could be tested which allowed for comparisons of younger and older participants, of participants who followed or did not follow the news, and of open-ended and multiple-choice questions.