Confidence is Key to Recollection

“Are you sure that’s your final answer?”

If you ask Steve Ernst, the first part of that sentence – “are you sure?” -- is every bit as important as the answer itself.

Individuals who are confident in their answers and knowledge can retain that information longer, according to Ernst, Vice President, Client Services, Knowledge Factor. The company focuses on measuring both knowledge and confidence in its learning software, he said at a CompTIA Colloquium session on learning technologies today.

That creates an emotional connection to the learning, which, when coupled with the repetition of learning itself, helps individuals to retain information longer, he said.

He compared it to being asked to speak the words to a song -- it’s much easier to remember them with the emotional prompting of a melody.

“You have the logical and emotional domains of the brain affecting retention,” he said.