Super Memory

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Silver_nz New Zealand. Sep 24 2012 04:43. Posts 5647

I feel I should preface this with: "Nerding before birding"

So, after quitting poker (again) I'm looking to learn new skills in computer programming and language, and to support that I'm doing alot of study about memory, and memory techniques.
Flashcard software is allowing me to learn subjects really quickly, and retain the knowledge, and I want to talk about it.
Check it out:

The forgetting curve

We learn a new fact like "in mountaineering, the death zone refers to altitudes above 8000m" or "Japanese for vending machine is 'jidou han baishi'" Recall of a fact drops off sharply without repetition. So we make a flashcard for it, and repeat the exposure, then after the second viewing, recall drops off more slowly. and so on.

This pattern in human forgetting leads to the idea repeating the flashcard at just the right time. Too soon, and you have wasted a few valuable seconds on something you already recall, too late, and the memory pathway has eroded and it won't stick.
You might have heard that the best way to study your notes from a class is 2 hours after class, then 2 days after, then a week after that etc. This is how to get the material lodged in long term memory. doing a ton of repetitions at first learning won't make it stick in long term memory any better. Our minds need the space of time in between.

So this software called supermemo, basically keeps track of that time-spacing for each flashcard, and every evening I spend ~20minutes running through the repetitions it throws up. The flashcard question appears, I try to recall the answer as best I can, then I push 'show answer' and rate how easy it was to recall, from a rating of: bright, good, pass, fail, bad or null. This tells the program when to ask me about that flashcard again. It's actually quite entertaining to run through the days repetitions, because everything it throws up is just on the edge of recall, so its challenging. And if you are learning multiple subjects, you get alot of variation in questions. By letting the program manage what I cram, I gain alot of time to read new topics, adding key points to my supermemo library as new flashcards.

So basically this is super useful for learning anything, I'm currently using it to learn Japanese, SQL programming, Perl Programming, the mnemonic major system (might make another post about this) and some nice arguments I want to be able to remember from 'Fooled by Randomness'

Anyway, this is running a bit long, so let me end with a delicious quote from this article:
"The problem of forgetting might not torment us so much if we could only convince ourselves that remembering isn't important. Perhaps the things we learn — words, dates, formulas, historical and biographical details — don't really matter. Facts can be looked up. That's what the Internet is for. When it comes to learning, what really matters is how things fit together. We master the stories, the schemas, the frameworks, the paradigms.
The disadvantage of this comforting notion is that it's false. "The people who criticize memorization — how happy would they be to spell out every letter of every word they read?" asks Robert Bjork, chair of UCLA's psychology department and one of the most eminent memory researchers. After all, Bjork notes, children learn to read whole words through intense practice, and every time we enter a new field we become children again. "You can't escape memorization," he says. "There is an initial process of learning the names of things. That's a stage we all go through. It's all the more important to go through it rapidly." "

0 votes

Shab United Kingdom. Sep 24 2012 05:22. Posts 22

Yeah interesting stuff (to me at least)

Doing this parallel to some programming seems like it should let you make use of some more obscure concepts quicker than otherwise.
Also makes me want to start my own learning project

def_jammer Germany. Sep 24 2012 07:31. Posts 1227

May i ask what sources you use to learn? Also why do you learn perl and where is it still in use?

bigredhoss Cook Islands. Sep 24 2012 13:59. Posts 8649

nice, i am preparing to fail a spanish test next week that i have not studied for or attended more than 2 classes of, perhaps this will be my savior.

Truck-Crash Life

2c0ntent Egypt. Sep 24 2012 14:51. Posts 1387

+-	Last edit: 29/09/2013 09:41

k4ir0s Canada. Sep 24 2012 16:09. Posts 3478

cool program. it's $60? gonna try to find a torrent

I dont know what a dt drop is. Is it a wrestling move? -Oly

Silver_nz New Zealand. Sep 24 2012 16:36. Posts 5647

Yeah, the source can be anything, I try to just learn normally then if there is anything I want to remember I write a flashcard or 5 for it. In this way its often more convenient to have an electronic source, so I can copy and paste sections and/or pictures. It does only really work over a longer time period, so it kinda becomes part of ones life. Anki is very similar, but a simpler program, with less keyboard shortcuts, less help and support on the website.
I started off with a torrent of the 2008 version, but couldn't seem to get the crack to work. The trial lasts for ages, and after I just brought it for $40 seeing as its kinda a part of life now.

Funktion Australia. Sep 24 2012 18:50. Posts 1638

On September 24 2012 13:51 2c0ntent wrote:
there is another program for this called Anki, which also uses flash cards. Haven't really used Anki yet but my friend likes it and it seemed to have a lot of features. I'll check this one out too.

I'm very interested to see what's in Taleb's next book, Antifragility

I've been using Anki for at least a year and a half and quite like it. I never bothered getting an account to sync all my devices but it's nice to be able to have it setup on the PC and have a copy of your card decks on your phone and/or tablet.

It's also free.

Last edit: 24/09/2012 18:51