Having accumulated evidence for the effects of the Method of Vanishing Cues in laboratory studies, it becomes necessary to ask the question, "Will this really work in the real world?"

Glisky and Schacter (1987, 1989) have worked with and demonstrated the most profound effects while retraining one of their patients for a new job. The employer of H.D., a young women who developed amnesia as a result of encephalitis, approached these researchers with the task of training H.D. for a new data entry job within the company. Although she suffers from severe memory loss, previous work with this patient demonstrated some ability to learn. Initially H.D. was trained for a part-time data entry position, and based on her success would be further trained for a more involved full-time position later on.

The first phase of training involved the acquisition of knowledge. The Vanishing Cues technique was used to teach the general terminology, meanings of the codes, and the location of the relevant information on the forms that would be required to complete the task. Once this basic knowledge had been acquired, training focused on gaining and improving the speed and efficiency of data entry. Learning of error handling procedures comprised the final phase of testing. 

H.D. responded very well to the method of vanishing cues. In the first phase of testing she would initially require as many as 60 hints to complete 28 sentences, but by the sixth session performance was perfect. As with other amnesic patients, learning was extremely slow, but nonetheless effective. When developing data entry efficiency, H.D. would be handed forms and told to enter the data. After 2.5 weeks, speed was 14 seconds/form, comparable to experienced colleagues. When learning error handling techniques, performance increased in a similar fashion while simultaneously decreasing the time required. When transferred back to the workplace, she was able to successfully adapt and perform her job independently. Interestingly, despite her success at no time was H.D. able to report what she did at work or any details of the procedure. 

With the success of this project, H.D's employer wanted her trained for an even more complex job. Also a data entry position, this new job would require entry of over 10 different types of forms, requiring H.D. to learn over 250 new pieces of information. Again the Method of Vanishing Cues was applied, involving the learning of the new document types, the information required from each type, and ultimately extensive practice entering the documents. By the end of this training, she was again able to meet the needs of the company and function competently in the workplace