Cognitive Scaffold

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MENTAL MODEL · M11564

Jost's Law

Jost's Law
Learn & MetacognitionHigh supportMemory Psychology
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Updated 2026-08-16

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

Jost's law, formulated by Adolf Jost in, states that if two memory traces have equal strength, the older trace will decay more slowly than the newer one, and that repetition strengthens older traces more effectively than recent ones. The core proposition is that the age of a memory and its strength jointly determine durability, so the same amount of review produces more lasting retention when applied to older, slightly faded material than to what was just learned. The key qualification is that the comparison requires equal current strength, since a genuinely weak or never-consolidated memory does not become durable merely by being old.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Review triage: rank material by age and current strength before deciding what to study. - Yield ranking: prioritize items learned some time ago that have faded slightly. - Fresh-material caution: treat material learned today as least durable, however well known it feels.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Memory traces consolidate over time, and an older trace of equal strength has already survived more decay, which indicates a more stable underlying trace. Reviewing it produces a larger gain in durability than the same review applied to a fresh trace. Effort spent on older, slightly faded material therefore yields more lasting retention per unit of study time.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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