Sorry, rather off topic, but I want to reply:
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiprose
hey geekmaster, if you aren't already, you might be interested in spaced repetition to strengthen memory and increase the efficiency of learning. i use a program called anki. the program can sync flashcards online and you can use the kindle web browser to complete exercises. |
Spaced repetition occurs naturally with a foreign book and a dual-language dictionary. When I read "Les Miserables" in the original French language, at first I had to look up almost every word in my French/English dictionary, but as my reading progressed, more and more words had been looked up so many times that I had to refer to the dictionary less and less often. By the end of the book, I rarely needed to use the dictionary any more.
With most other learning, I am more of a "hands on" kind of guy. I prefer to learn stuff at the deep reflexive kinesthetic muscle-memory level, but it typically takes about 10,000 repetitions to train your spinal cord to react before the sensory triggers even reach your brain. My sensory triggers consist mostly of gravity pulling on my body limbs creating feedback that extends my sense of self out into the space around me.
I map a lot of my mental processes into muscle memory space. At one job, I even kept my thoughts and ideas on thousands of little notes attached to the wall next to me (my memory wall). Muscle memory allowed me to accurately reach for any content even with my eyes closed. I moved the notes around in clusters as my mental map grew and refactored. My memory wall functioned very much like add-on extended memory and became very reflexive and natural for me. I have tried to recreate that experience in recent years with a wall of monitors in front of me. I have replaced my seven 25-inch 1920x1440 CRTs with seven LCD panels (mostly 2048x1152, with one 1920x1200). Unfortunately, after switching to Windows XP (needed for my paying work) running as a 32-bit VM running inside 64-bit linux, my video cards will only let me use 3 monitors, because the linux nvidia and radeon drivers fight and the radeon is running in framebuffer compatibility mode, which only supports one monitor on that dual-head video card (as far as I can get it to work without too many distractions form what I WANT to do with my time). [I really feel horribly cramped with all the layers of buried windows on only three monitors.]
Anyway, trying to artificially use spaced repetition for rote learning does not work well for me unless reinforced by real physical activity (like using a paper bound dictionary).
[No, I am NOT on drugs! This is really how I think all the time.]