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Anki and GPT-3

andrewjudson.com

61–70 of 80 posts

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#61
With the timing (ChatGPT out for about a month, GPT3 with close to identical capabilities in a different UI for 2.5 years) this announcement seems to add another datapoint that ChatGPT was a genious marketing campaign that pushes GPT adoption into the mainstream.

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the note-taking strategy. From the same paper you cited, section 8.4 Practice testing - Issues for implementation, pages 34-35: > Another merit of practice testing is that it can be implemented with minimal training. Students can engage in recall-based self-testing in a relatively straightforward fashion. For example, students can self-test via cued recall by creating flashcards (free and low-cost flashcar…

Founder of StudyWand.com here, who received a 15k grant to develop an AI generating flashcard app in 2020 after an earlier prototype. We've found students more consistently study ready-made cards that are at desirable difficulty (they get about 80% correct) and which are segmented by topic (e.g. semantic grouping of flashcards to tackle "one lesson at a time" like Duolingo). Students would prefer to use pre-made flas…

That's an excellent response. Thank you. I didn't think of the foresight bias and now that I do, it makes a lot of sense.

> Undertaking a Quiz (Retrieval practice) can enhance test scores significantly, including web-based quizzes

The way I understand it, retrieval practice increases test scores where you test information retrieval (quizzes, multiple choice, etc.). Which makes sense because you're practicing a skill that the test evaluates.

The follow-up question: does retrieval practice increase scores when you evaluate understanding of a subject, such as open tests or essays?

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder of StudyWand.com here, who received a 15k grant to develop an AI generating flashcard app in 2020 after an earlier prototype. We've found students more consistently study ready-made cards that are at desirable difficulty (they get about 80% correct) and which are segmented by topic (e.g. semantic grouping of flashcards to tackle "one lesson at a time" like Duolingo). Students would prefer to use pre-made flas…

That's an excellent response. Thank you. I didn't think of the foresight bias and now that I do, it makes a lot of sense. > Undertaking a Quiz (Retrieval practice) can enhance test scores significantly, including web-based quizzes The way I understand it, retrieval practice increases test scores where you test information retrieval (quizzes, multiple choice, etc.). Which makes sense because you're practicing a skill…

Thank you.

I am afraid I don't know and couldn't easily find any research. I did find this post, but it looks like SEO spam a little, and doesn't cite the essay claim: https://www.bookishelf.com/the-importance-of-information-ret...

I'll ask Prof Roediger as we occasionally communicate and will aim to get back to you. However, I wouldn't be surprised if any correlation was not statistically significant.

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#64

As a daily Anki user, I am highly skeptical of this idea. The careful creation of new cards is one of the key parts in learning the material. It promotes a critical thinking step where you have to distill the material down into small but important pieces and (if you want to do it well) forces you to evaluate if you have actually understood what you wrote down. I suspect that forgoing this step will not lead to unders…

Anki's key benefits stem from its utilization of two highly supported and extensively researched pedagogical strategies: (1) retrieval practice and (2) spaced repetition. In contrast, the practice of note-taking, which essentially entails summarizing information in one's own words, has been found to have 'low utility' in academic literature. [0] [0]: https://sci-hub.ru/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26173288/

I think the benefits are multiplicative here.

As another experienced Anki user, I have found I get much more leverage out of spaced repetition (both in terms of efficiency of memorization, as well as in how useful the information is) when I've first made the knowledge my own and structured it in a way that makes sense to me before creating the cards, rather than just dumping a bunch of pure entropy into the Anki database.

That's not really note-taking per se, but it is ensuring that the stuff I'm trying to memorize isn't pure entropy (which is always more of a challenge to memorize in any event), but rather is part of a larger sense-making structure. The purpose of spaced repetition is to help prevent that structure from decaying; it's not a substitute for having it in the first place.

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#65
post #14

As a daily Anki user, I am highly skeptical of this idea. The careful creation of new cards is one of the key parts in learning the material. It promotes a critical thinking step where you have to distill the material down into small but important pieces and (if you want to do it well) forces you to evaluate if you have actually understood what you wrote down. I suspect that forgoing this step will not lead to unders…

It's a classic beginner mistake to load up a 20000 word deck and start learning it when you have no relationship or connection to the cards. Create a card when you first see the word in real life, with that example sentence on the back, and it's so much easier to remember. At least for me anyway.

The opposite theory is that getting _some_ exposure to the information, even if you can't actively recall it, is still valuable. When you encounter that information in the wild, your brain then has an existing pathway to strengthen.

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an excellent response. Thank you. I didn't think of the foresight bias and now that I do, it makes a lot of sense. > Undertaking a Quiz (Retrieval practice) can enhance test scores significantly, including web-based quizzes The way I understand it, retrieval practice increases test scores where you test information retrieval (quizzes, multiple choice, etc.). Which makes sense because you're practicing a skill…

Thank you. I am afraid I don't know and couldn't easily find any research. I did find this post, but it looks like SEO spam a little, and doesn't cite the essay claim: https://www.bookishelf.com/the-importance-of-information-ret... I'll ask Prof Roediger as we occasionally communicate and will aim to get back to you. However, I wouldn't be surprised if any correlation was not statistically significant.

One more thing. When you mentioned Test Anxiety it reminded me of frequent comments about anxiety during job interviews. I'm wondering if flashcards (or other retrieval practice) could help there too. Perhaps you can spin it into a product for professionals.

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#67
Why would you use LLM to create Anki cards when you can use said LLM to obtain the answer in the first place, eliminating the need to recall the information you are trying to remember with Anki?

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#68

Why would you use LLM to create Anki cards when you can use said LLM to obtain the answer in the first place, eliminating the need to recall the information you are trying to remember with Anki?

lol came here to say this. this defeats the purpose of anki

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#69
post #55

Just a side note on Anki - it sounds cool, but how is it possible that there are zero screenshots on the product page? Furthermore, it has a super busy (/intimidating-to-non-techies) download section, and the only real descriptive text is on the linked docs/help site, which is so dense that it is completely overwhelming to anybody who is still in "convince me" mode. The project would probably have 10x the number of u…

This is one of the reasons i made Mochi[0]. I couldn’t understand how this was the best recommendation for new people. Anki can be very useful and powerful but it is so user unfriendly as to be down right hostile. (Plus Mochi has GPT-3 built in [1]) [0] https://mochi.cards/ [1] https://twitter.com/MochiCardsApp/status/1603569008493711361

Looks cool! Will it still work when your company is gone?

Re: Anki and GPT-3

#70

Just a side note on Anki - it sounds cool, but how is it possible that there are zero screenshots on the product page? Furthermore, it has a super busy (/intimidating-to-non-techies) download section, and the only real descriptive text is on the linked docs/help site, which is so dense that it is completely overwhelming to anybody who is still in "convince me" mode. The project would probably have 10x the number of u…

Wait until you have tried SuperMemo, the OG SRS
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