THE toughest lessons really are the best—because things that are harder
to learn are also harder to forget.
Vivian Schneider and colleagues at the University of Colorado tested
English-speaking volunteers on their ability to learn French words. They found
that people who were asked to translate from English to French had a harder time
learning the new vocabulary than those who had to convert French into
English.
But when the people were tested again a week later, those who had learned the
hard way remembered the new words better (Journal of Memory and
Language, vol 46, p 419).…
