The spreading of learning moments over time, in other words, repetition. By continuously training your brain to retrieve information from your long-term memory, you strengthen the connections between the neurons in your brain. This makes it easier to retrieve information from your long-term memory (see forgetting curve). This can be done, for example, by creating practice questions (test questions, quiz questions) about the material from the past weeks (see retrieval practice). By alternating topics and types of practice questions about them (see interleaved practice), the information sticks even better. It is therefore of little use to study for long periods at a stretch: your memory can only process a limited amount of information at a time. If you learn more than that, things will also be forgotten again. It is comparable to your phone's storage getting full and needing space to be made (see Cognitive Load Theory). Additionally, you quickly forget new information again. Rereading a text is not the same as testing yourself. When you reread the text, you recognize things and feel like you are getting better at it. In reality, it is purely about recognition and contributes very little to remembering it. However, there is a good chance that you cannot write it down from memory any better. You are actually fooling yourself (see Illusion of Fluency).
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.
Roediger, H. L., & Pyc, M. A. (2012). Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1(4), 242-248.
Benjamin, A. S., & Tullis, J. (2010). What makes distributed practice effective? Cognitive Psychology, 61, 228-247.