Training industry thought leader Cathy Moore is a strong proponent – indeed a pioneer – of an instructional format that places the content to be learned into reference materials so that people do not need to memorize (remember) information – they just refer to their job aids.
In a recent webinar, cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Carmen Simon stated that “People can’t act on what they can’t remember” (what they haven’t memorized). Her research and consultancy focus on the goal of making information more memorable.
These two positions, taken in their purest forms, cannot both be right.
Each training project needs to balance appropriate memory stimulation for knowledge transfer against flexible just-in-time performance support tools that prevent cognitive overload (with the realization that “overload” varies among individuals).
But stepping back for a larger perspective, why is it OK for us to want people to remember (memorize) a marketing message, but not OK to want them to memorize (remember) processes and requirements for performing their duties as an employee?
Usability guru Steve Krug’s groundbreaking book Don’t Make Me Think was about designing products and websites that are intuitively easy to use. It was not, I suspect, intended to be a philosophy of life.