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The general, predictable pattern of the process of forgetting learned information.

Psychologists have been interested in the processes of learning and forgetting since the early days of the discipline. The researcher who pioneered this field, Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909), invented the nonsense syllable in order to be able to assess "pure" learning, that is, learning free of meaning, and the rate at which we forget. He served as his own subject and learned an incredible number of lists of nonsense syllables. He used material with little or no meaning because he was aware that learning new information is influenced by what we already know. He decided to create learning situations that were free of prior knowledge.

The way that we forget is highly predictable, following what psychologists call the forgetting curve....