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Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

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Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To use a language you need "over-learning". It's not enough to be able to recall a word. You need to be able to recall it very fast, and that only comes through repetition beyond the "I won't ever forget this" stage. SRS doesn't make a statement about this, and you can still use it to achieve that over-learning, in my opinion. It may be better to achieve it through reading texts in the foreign language because the re…

One way you can achieve this using SRS is forcing very short recall times. I average under 2 seconds a card in review: my view is that if I can't recall it in under 2 seconds (what would be realistic in a real-life scenario when speaking a language) then I don't know it. It's a method that's trained me to be very fast at recalling words when needed.

Interesting idea.

Do you manage that yourself. I.e. you time your own response, and if it feels slow you mark the card as forgotten?

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://super-memo.com/ is the software that's being talked about.

Ah OK, though I'm still curious how there can also be an apparently unrelated online offering at supermemo.com. FWIW, from the very brief experience I've had so far I'm not super impressed, but I'll try sticking with it for at least the month of the free trial.

they are working together. supermemo.com is based on the same algorithm but is designed to be more mainstream (no advanced stuff like incremental reading & hard to make your own cards).You can buy high quality language courses there(no need to make all the cards). I have both since supermemo.com has an app for the phone.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If actually using it has this huge friction, how do you manage to use it every day? I always have a hard time creating habits out things that are hard to "start" doing every time.

I don't. I developed my own spaced repetition software from first principles based on the latest research :D

Is it available somewhere? Could it become available?

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#144
post #17

I was anti-memorization until I went back to graduate school for mathematics. I had forgotten (or never learned) a lot of things needed to pass qualifying exams. At some point I ran across the spaced repetition idea (maybe from the Wired SuperMemo article [0]) and I gave it a try. I ended up using it to memorize large portions of baby Rudin and Munkres' Topology, as well as some algebra and a bunch of qualifying exam…

Don't you think you actually did well in your exams because you really understood it and not because you blindly memorized it ?

All of the courses that I did really well in I memorised the entirety of the book that was the core of the course. Everywhere where I didn't feel like doing it, I was strictly mediocre. If you think you can understand something without knowing all about it, I must say I think you are mistaken.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#145

Not to detract, but there was an article on SRS that I think I came across on HN about 2-3 months ago (though I guess may have been Reddit); I've been struggling to find it for the last month or so. It was a fairly long article, probably a 20-30 minute read, dark background (though I guess this may have been dynamic since I was reading at night), with a broad overview of SRS, several studies cited, and a personal ane…

Is it this one? https://www.gwern.net/Spaced-repetition

That's the one, thank you so much! Skimming it quickly, I now remember the Haskell.

Funny to have forgotten how to find an article on a memorization technique.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#146
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it this one? https://www.gwern.net/Spaced-repetition

Based on the mention of auto-dark-mode, probably. We put some effort into thinking about how to do dark mode right and integrate with system settings - your usual website hack of an invert toggle is wrong, but the correct auto/light/dark tri-state toggle is not obvious.

I'll have to look at the strategy you took. Thanks for the article! I now also remember the mention of Mnemosyne, which was the first SRS app I ever used (got me through medical school!). Now using RepetitionsApp x years.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way you can achieve this using SRS is forcing very short recall times. I average under 2 seconds a card in review: my view is that if I can't recall it in under 2 seconds (what would be realistic in a real-life scenario when speaking a language) then I don't know it. It's a method that's trained me to be very fast at recalling words when needed.

Interesting idea. Do you manage that yourself. I.e. you time your own response, and if it feels slow you mark the card as forgotten?

Yeah, it's something I can time myself: I'm on about 6 years of daily usage at this point so it comes very easily. Anki also lets you set a time-out on cards as well. I'll know just from looking at the front of the card whether or not I know the word. If I do, space then 'good'; if I don't, space then 'again'. Very rarely I'll know a card but only after a longer moment to think about it - that's a 'hard' card.

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#149

Anyone recommend an iOS app for this? There are a ton of kinda sketchy looking ones in the App Store.

AnkiMobile Flashcards. Unfortunately it's $25, but the price is well worth it. I've learned Greek using Anki.

If you ever move to Android, the app is free and open source, and I've contributed code to it!

Re: Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall

#150
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a guy who did a book like this: http://yong321.freeshell.org/lsw/ preview: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Learning_Spanish_Words_... It's just a bunch of vocabulary paired with etymology notes and observations/sounds-likes to make the vocabulary memorable.

Oooh, this looks lovely, thank you for showing me this. EDIT, hm he seems to be missing some obvious cognates, e.g. >propio, own (adj.); proper (cognate). Proper in modern English no longer has the meaning "own", but this word in Spanish, propio, still retains it. if this knowledge is too uninteresting, use a mnemonic such as "A truly proper lady behaves in her own natural style." wtf? What about just the English wor…

There's something to be said for using strange or even ridiculous mnemonics as a memory aid.

I'd often come up with little stories to teach myself some of the more complex Chinese characters when I was learning quite intensively and found I never struggled to remember those words after doing so.

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