Perpetuating incorrect information

I was a little embarrassed to learn this week that, "People do NOT remember 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they see, 30 percent of what they hear, and so on. That information, and similar pronouncements, are fraudulent. Moreover, general statements on the effectiveness of learning methods are not credible—-learning results depend on too many variables to enable such precision."

I have read this information in quite a few training manuals and books and have shared such information myself more than once (I think even in an article!) So, it was surprising to discover that this information on retention is an urban legend. Now that I think about it, I'm positive that I heard it for the first time in graduate school (one of the 30% of things I heard that I remembered...;-)

The article explaining the origins of this myth can be found here: http://www.bobpikegroup.com/articles_view.asp?columnid=3618&articleid=53796

And I learned about it from the Passion for Birth blog: http://childbirtheducation.blogspot.com.

--Molly Remer