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Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

domenic.me

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Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#451

Post by wodenokoto »

I think it’s important to note that the original SRS algorithms are not for learning. They or for remembering or “not forgetting”.

The system assumes you have already learned the fact (for some unclear to me definition of learned)

Most users inserts new words in the hope that repeating them in anki will help them learn. It does to some extend, but it is not quite the right tool.

So for example, in Japanese, simply remembering how to read a word out loud is a task in and of itself. If you put words in context (which in language learning makes sense) the learner will quickly start to recall the meaning of the word based on the look of a sentence.

For a learning system this open up a lot of issues to solve. The best attempt I’ve seen was a web app that gave you full sentences and you clicked the characters word you didn’t understand and based on that it would give you different sentences.

There are two problems with that website: I don’t remember what it was called and it used google translate from 10 years ago. The second could be improved by expanding the corpus and use LLM to form sentences for the learner.

Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#452

Post by vintermann »

kkarich wrote: post #449

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Yeah, my immediate thought when reading this was that it's great they've replaced a formula with a better formula, but couldn't it be replaced by something smart? An LLM could in theory be content-aware, taking into account that this card reinforces these associations, which makes this other card easier to recall but this third card harder to recall. And it may even be able to say, this card is related to a more central concept, it should get priority because that will help in the longer run.

In the long run, the appeal of machine learning to me is that we can move up the stack of what we optimize for, so instead of targeting a proxy metric, say a certain recall ratio, we might actually be able to target directly the thing we care about, say ability to use these things in practice. Moving upwards in the teleological hierarchy.

Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#453

Post by john01dav »

kkarich wrote: post #449

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LLMs should only be used where hallucinations can be tolerated (either low stakes, like a video game; or where competent human review exists). What you describe is neither of these scenarios. You may be trying to memorize something that's not low stakes (and if it's low stakes why bother memorizing? Just make it up as you go), and if you're using study tools you're probably not (yet) competent enough to check for mistakes.

Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#454

Post by sireat »

BeetleB wrote: post #425
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What info did you memorize?

Basic undergrad statistics. This doesn't make me better at doing statistics, but now I can understand things I read. Whereas prior to SR, I had learned the material three separate times - always forgot because of lack of use. SR made it stick. Algorithms and data structures. Basics of HTML/CSS/JS. I'm not a frontend developer, but this was enough for me to (mostly) understand colleagues' JS code. And often I would in…

I can understand using SR for languages or I suppose geography or history trivia.

However, how do you use for skills/domains where you have to actively think?

Like in your Python example, knowing about os.scandir() would be a tiny bit helpful before Pathlib.

Let's say I put pathlib.Path().iterdir() in my Anki card, what would be the point of that for someone who is happily using glob or rglob?

What I mean is that for many domains it seems the challenge is what to put on these Anki cards.

Let's go with another example. Let's say you create Anki card Recall = TP / (TP + FN) for your statistics 101. However knowing why and when recall is important would be crucial instead of knowing bare formula.

Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#455

Post by _Algernon_ »

yellow_lead wrote: post #23
keiferski wrote: post #8

I’ve been using Anki for about a decade now, and as far as I’m concerned, the only real improvements needed are design/UI based. It is functionally irrelevant if the algorithm is optimized or not when the actual user interface seems boring to potential users. While I do like that Anki has power user options, it’s also very unintuitive to the average person just looking into it. Which is really a shame, as the spacing…

Compared to i.e Duolingo, the app is quite boring. I still have been using it for years. But I sometimes wonder if adding a bit of gamification may help. For instance, streaks, sound effects, etc. Obviously, those should be optional

This doesn't work on mobile of course, but for desktop Anki there are plugins that go in this direction.

For example review heatmap will give you a streak.

Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#456

Post by fauxswede »

MostlyStable wrote: post #224
TechDebtDevin wrote: post #204

Pro Tip , if you're using LLMs to learn, create an MCP tool for them to insert Anki cards on topics you're discussing in a csv on google drive, then sync that with you anki decks on your phone. This was a game changer for me and working with LLMS, while I still think they make you dumb, and we essentially use them to offload critical thinking (almost only find myself using them when tired lazy, and just cant), if you…

I created a python script that checks my anki deck for the cards that I'm scheduled to review the next day and asks an LLM to generate new sentences for the cards, so that every time I see them, I see them in a new context. I did this because I realized I was hitting an issue where I theoretically "knew" a word (would get it always correct on the card), but wouldn't always recognize it in a novel context. I'm hoping…

[dead]

Re: Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

#458

Post by 2c2c2c »

BeetleB wrote: post #425
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What info did you memorize?

Basic undergrad statistics. This doesn't make me better at doing statistics, but now I can understand things I read. Whereas prior to SR, I had learned the material three separate times - always forgot because of lack of use. SR made it stick. Algorithms and data structures. Basics of HTML/CSS/JS. I'm not a frontend developer, but this was enough for me to (mostly) understand colleagues' JS code. And often I would in…

> Algorithms and data structures.

how do you frame these cards? I've always assumed something like this would be too information dense to be useful

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