How We Learn

The Learning Part is Easy — It’s Remembering That’s Hard

 

A commenter pointed me to this Wired article by Gary Wolf:  Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to this Algorithm.

These quotes from the article describe how I feel, to a tee:

Learning things is easy. But remembering them — this is where a certain hopelessness sets in.

Wozniak felt that his ability to rationally control his life was slipping away. "There were 80 phone calls per day to handle. There was no time for learning, no time for programming, no time for sleep...."

Our capacity to learn is amazingly large. But optimal learning demands a kind of rational control over ourselves that does not come easily. Even the basic demand for regularity can be daunting.

 

Has anyone tried SuperMemo (described in article)?

 

llustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

 
11 Comments | posted July 18th, 2011
 
 
  • Anticipatedend

    I have been using it since April 2010, and it's definitely one of the most useful programs I've ever used. It may take a few weeks to get the hang of the program. I've seen serious results from doing better on tests, remembering things to say in speeches, and remembering the harder things like specific numbers or dates. You can download the free 2004 version here that comes with a tutorial on the flashcard mode (Q&A) and the reading mode (incremental reading): (I use the 2008 version, which was $50. 2004 version has similar features though. I'm not associated with SuperMemo Research by the way.)  http://www.freewarefiles.com/SuperMemo_program_13849.html

    • http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier

      WOW!  I'm just about to start Cog Med.  I wonder if this conflicts.  I will ask the doctor.  Thanks for the feedback.  I LOVE THAT!!

  • http://twitter.com/katefrishman Kate Frishman

    That article was fascinating! One of the things that struck me about Wozniak was his willingness to forgo a social life for the sake of his obsession. Not communicating with a business partner for four months seems a bit excessive.
    Supermemo sounds interesting, but I am not willing to exchange deep reading for incremental reading. However, I will introduce a review plan to our homeschooling this year in math and foreign languages. I'm going to download the free version of SuperMemo (thanks Anticipatedend!) and take a look at it.

    • http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier

      I posted this in a few other places too, and there were others who said it worked for them also.

      Oddly enough, I have no social life to forgo, so that wouldn't be a problem ;)

    • Anticipatedend

      I've heard it recommended to spend 90% on traditional 'deep reading' and then importing (perhaps using a scanner or optical character recognition) your top 10% most important material into incremental reading. You expend a minimal amount of time maintaining that 10%, but your recall of that important material will be high. In any case, incremental reading makes me more comfortable that I won't accidentally miss anything like I might when read a book front to back, and you can spend as much time as you want reading deeply per page. I still read traditionally too, since not every book comes in electronic form just yet.
      In terms of social life, I allocate a reasonable amount of time to SuperMemo, and I still haven't needed to "compartmentalize" my family and friend time. I think 85% of the users of SuperMemo just use it casually, like perhaps 10 minutes a day, simply to maintain information they learned in college or perhaps steadily build their vocabulary. So for many casual users, the software likely shrinks the time needed for studying, meaning more time for social contact or just plain living.
      For your homeschooling, you may want to learn how to import Quizlet.com flashcards into SuperMemo. This helped increase my English and Spanish vocabulary immensely because I could use flashcards other people had typed up (provided I had a solid background in the grammars).

  • http://twitter.com/SheldonWordNerd Sheldon the WordNerd

    Think I commented on the critical thinking post about spaced retrieval. It absolutely works, and I didn't know someone had actually created a program to do it for you!  Will absolutely be checking it out.  Spaced retrieval is part of how we designed Word-Nerd, and I'm a true believer in the concept.  Thanks so much for this!

    • http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier

      There is no question in my mind that spaced repetition works -- but what I"m starting to realize is that you can't just start from anywhere and be all willy nilly like I am.  I'm starting to really believe that you have to build methodically. 

      I've been doing Kumon for about 3 weeks now (or 4?).  I started with simple addition and it was 3 minutes per day.  I told the Kumon woman that I can do more, and so now I do about 10 minutes per day and I'm on subtraction, and have even seen a small sprinkling of addition occasionally mixed in with the subtraction (just starting).

      I keep asking the Kumon lady, "when are we getting to those polynomials?" and she smiles and says,  "not for a long time."  ;)

      BUT, even though this is a painstakingly slow process, A) I'm enjoying it enormously, and B) I am in the midst of a neuro psych I.Q. test with this doctor, and one part of it today was Kumon style worksheets (but all mixed up), and he said that I had 3 minutes to do the sheets, but from the way he said it, it didn't sound like I was supposed to finish.

      And when he hit the stop watch, I ran like the wind.  The only thing stopping me was how fast my hand could write.  I was a Kumon Ninja.....and there were multiple stacked numbers that I had to subtract and carry over numbers and I did it all in my head (Kumon style).

      It made me realize (what I knew in my bones) was that there is a method to their madness (i.e. Kumon), and it may seem absurdly slow, but I'm telling you, I finished that part of the I.Q. test a minute EARLY, and there was NO WAY that that would have happened a month ago.  I would have hesitated and hemmed and hawed about how to carry over multiple numbers.Today, there wasn't an iota of hesitation.

      I may be on my death bed though by the time I get those polynomials, but who's counting.  No question the spaced repetition works.Headed over to your site to check out.

      • http://twitter.com/SheldonWordNerd Sheldon the WordNerd

        Did you know my day job is neuropsych testing?  I think we're living parallel lives :)

        Hope Word-Nerd intrigues you.  We were so budget limited in developing the site that it doesn't have all the bells and whistles I want it to eventually have.  But we'll get there.  The science is there, just need to get the technicalities of it to work.

        Let me know if you'd like to take a peek behind the paywall. Would be happy to hook you up!

        • http://www.perfectscoreproject.com Debbie Stier

          Oh, how weird.

          Yes, hook me up!!!  THANK U!!

          And you should add sign up for email because that's how I remember to go to people's blogs and I couldn't find that on yours :(  Use Feedburner.  Free and great.

          • http://twitter.com/SheldonWordNerd Sheldon the WordNerd

            Will do.  Just need your email address.  Could you DM that to me?

            Will look into an email list. There are a million things I want to do on the site, and that's one of them.  I do put anything new on Sheldon's facebook page, so that's one way to get stuff, or I'm happy to just tweet at you until we get an email set up.

        • Anonymous

          I'd love to learn more about it as well.

 

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