Do you want to boost recall by up to 15%?

In his book, Brain Rules, John Medina describes an experiment where recall is tested with two sets of divers in two differing situations. He concludes that there is an inescapable neurological connection between learning, recall and location.

The experiment …

Two teams of divers with one team in the water and one team on the beach. Both teams are given information.

Some time later they're tested for their recall of the information in the place where they were when the information was given to them. That is, the place where the learning originally took place.

The experiment was then repeated. This time both teams were located in the 'wrong' place. That is, they reversed the location of where they were originally given the information.

The result …

Recall in the divers who were tested in the same environment as where the learning took place recalled 15% more than those whose recall was tested in the 'wrong' environment.

What does this mean for training generally?

There would be an increase in recall of the information required to complete a workplace task … and a reduction in mistakes and accidents … if the training took place in the environment where the learning would be used.