Overlearning refers to learning something beyond the point of mastery in order to retain or apply it better over the longer term. There are two broad and related forms of overlearning:
- Overlearning to achieve automaticity through repeated and well-structured practice of the same knowledge base or skill set.
- Learning additional advanced or applied material in order to reinforce the main material that one wants to attain mastery of.
Overlearning may be advantageous in two ways: