Definition
One of Thorndike's laws of learning, which states that things most often repeated are best remembered. Skills and knowledge are strengthened through meaningful practice and repetition, and weakened when not used.
Plain English
You learn by doing — and the more often you do something correctly, the better it sticks. Skip the practice and the skill fades.
Context Anchor
Seen in the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook discussion of Thorndike’s laws of learning, especially when explaining why pilots need practice, review, and repetition.
Derivation
From Latin exercere, meaning 'to keep busy, train, or practice.' The law is named for the central role that repeated practice plays in learning — exercising a skill is what builds and maintains it.
Why Pilots Care
Instructors apply this law by scheduling deliberate, repeated practice so students develop automatic, dependable responses in the cockpit.
Intuition Check
Do not read “exercise” here as physical fitness. In this term, it means repeated correct practice; repeated wrong practice can also build a wrong habit.
Example Sentence 1
Following the law of exercise, the instructor had the student perform stall recoveries on every flight until the response became automatic.
Example Sentence 2
Frequent pattern work at the airport applies the law of exercise so landings improve with each repetition.