General Discussion

Skill decay refers to the loss or decay of trained or acquired skills (or knowledge) after periods of nonuse. Skill decay is particularly salient and problematic in situations where individuals receive initial training on knowledge and skills that they may not be required to use or exercise for extended periods of time.

So what’s known about skill decay? Common sense checks out.

1. Time matters. “There is an increase in the amount of skill decay as the length of the nonpractice interval increases.”

2. Physical skills decay slower than cognitive skills. “Physical tasks display less skill decay than cognitive tasks, and the difference in decay is close to half a standardized unit… across all retention intervals.”

3. Speed tasks decay more slowly than accuracy tasks. “Across all retention intervals, the amount of skill decay for accuracy tasks was over three times higher than that of speed tasks (i.e., effect size = -1.00 and -0.32, respectively) . ” Learning to do something rapidly stays with you longer than learning to do something correctly.

4. Ability to transfer knowledge decays faster than mere retention. “skill decay is negatively associated with the level of similarity between the original learning and retention contexts.”