218 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
218 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
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#THE MEMORY THING
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## Why & Science
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Pffft, why bother *memorizing* anything? Nowadays, when you can use a giant techno-corp to look stuff up, what is memory good for other than party tricks like: remembering the names & lives of people you've met, knowing your favorite poems & passages by heart, and having a rich internal library you can take with you anywhere?
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But seriously: memory gets a bad rap. I remember being forced to memorize countless meaningless facts in school.
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But the problem isn't *memorization*, it's *meaninglessness*. If done well, memory *makes* meaning! There's a reason why, in Greek mythology, Memory was the mother of the Muses.
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The Greeks were right. You may have heard that we should teach creativity & critical thinking *instead* of rote memorization – but cognitive scientists have shown that creativity & critical thinking *require* memorization! (Proof: imagine composing a poem or essay if you haven't even memorized your ABCs) Before we can *connect* the dots, we must first *collect* the dots.
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But people use many strategies to learn, and most of them suck. In 2013, a team of cognitive scientists did a meta-study – a study of _200+ other studies_ – to find out how effective 10 study techniques were. Let's see if their findings match your expectations. (they didn't match *mine!*)
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**Re-reading** to remember is...
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[NOT EFFECTIVE]
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A lot of students re-read text to study. It's hard, it's time-consuming, but at least it's... mostly useless. Oh well. On to the next:
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**Highlighting** or underlining key material is...
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[NOT EFFECTIVE]
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That's right – despite re-reading & highlighting being the most common study techniques, they've both been proven to *NOT* work. Now, how about this:
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**Spaced Practice**, spreading out your learning instead of cramming, is...
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[HIGHLY EFFECTIVE!]
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We're all guilty of cramming the night before the exam. And a month after the exam, you've forgotten everything. In contrast, spacing out your learning is easier _and_ helps you recall things better in the long term! Next:
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**Visual Mnemonics**, making mental pictures for ideas you want to memorize, is...
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[NOT EFFECTIVE]
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This shocked me. Especially since I *love* visualization. But although imagery helps with learning foreign or technical vocabulary, it's not been shown to work over the long term like spaced practice does. Finally:
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**Active Recall**, giving yourself quizzes, is...
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[HIGHLY EFFECTIVE!]
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You learn what you practice. The reason re-reading & highlighting is so ineffective is that you don't practice *recalling* answers, you practice *recognizing* answers.
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There's a method that combines spaced practice and active recall. It's called **spaced repetition.** (I think "spaced recall" would be a better name, but alas) Compared to the most common study techniques, spaced repetition is easier, more effective, and *almost no schools tell you about it*.
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// Note: Memory Palaces?
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But I want to tell you about it. In the next 10 minutes, I'd like to help you start using spaced repetition *today*. Whether you're in school (my condolences) or learning on your own (my congratulations), I hope this little method can be the mother of your Muses.
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But first... let's do a little active recall, shall we?
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**TEST A:**
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[3 Common But Ineffective Ways to Learn are...]
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[Re-reading, Highlighting, Visual Mnemonics]
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[2 Uncommon But Effective Ways to Learn are...]
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[Spaced Practice, Active Recall]
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[???]
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[???]
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## How & What
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So, what, am I just recommending you use boring ol' flashcards? Well, yes. But they're flashcards... *on steroids!*
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The problem with regular flashcards is that *you* decide when you see the cards. You may see cards you know as often as cards you don't. Or you may throw away cards you *think* you have in long-term memory, but really was only in short-term memory. The solution: have a shoebox tell you when to study.
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**The Leitner Box** was invented by Sebastian Leitner in 1973, and was one of the first spaced repetition systems. It's a box. An actual box. (There's a digital version; we'll see that later) You can use this box to learn almost anything, but it's most popular in the language-learning community. Earlier this year, I started using this box to help me learn French – and in two *months*, the box taught me more than two *years* of Canadian school French.
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Not bad for a shoebox! Here's how it works.
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**To make the box:**
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1. Get a box.
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2. Make dividers to split the box into levels. (let's say 7 levels)
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**To use the box:**
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You put flashcards in the box.
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// how flashcards work
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Here's how often you should study (active recall) the cards at each level:
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[pic]
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Note that for each next level, the duration *doubles*. (spaced practice) Here's a 64-day calendar you can use:
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[pic]
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// (Note that you should review your higher-level cards _first_.)
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But how do your cards get to each level? Well, first, new flashcards go into Level 1.
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[pic]
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When you review the cards in a single level, all the cards you got right go up to the next level, and all the cards you got wrong go... _back to Level 1._
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[pic]
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// (And if you're reviewing Level 1, just keep reviewing your incorrect cards until they all go up to Level 2)
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This guarantees that you'll see cards you don't know often, and cards you do know only _just as you're about to forget them_. It's a system that strengthens your weakest points!
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Here's a step-by-step simulation of what this looks like over several days:
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[sim]
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Now, for whatever reason, you may not like the idea of scribbling index cards to shove into a shoebox. Thankfully, there are also digital spaced repetition systems, the most popular of which is the free, open-source app, **Anki.**
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(Anki uses a more sophisticated spaced-practice schedule than the Leitner box, but the core idea is the same.)
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(ANTI-DISCLAIMER: I am *not* affiliated with Anki, I just genuinely think it's an awesome app. Even though I personally prefer the shoebox.)
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Alright, now that I've sung the high praises of a shoebox, here's the catch:
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// Only for declarative knowledge (but procedural skills can be aided)
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// MEMORIZATION IS NOT ENOUGH (collect THEN connect. on the side, do stuff that uses the facts together)
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**No matter what fancy learning techniques you use, if what you're learning feels meaningless, it won't work.** As I said earlier: the problem isn't memorization, it's meaninglessness. It's not knowing your *whats*, it's knowing your *why*.
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So now, let's turn to you. What do you want to learn, and why?
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∴ TEST B (3 cards)
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[What does the "Forgetting Curve" look like?] []
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[Leitner Box study schedule] []
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[The most popular Spaced Repetition System app (as of Sep 2018) is...] [Anki (free, open source)]
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## Using it for YOU
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"Meaning" may seem like a fluffy woo-word, but it all comes down to the lament of bored students everywhere:
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“When am I ever going to use this?”
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Before I started using the shoebox, I had tried learning French with Duolingo. It's a great app. I'm not dissing it. It's free, it's polished, and it's helped lots of people. But not me. Learning a list of words (that I didn't choose) felt too removed from what I *really* wanted to do with the language, which was read French comics and be a French film snob.
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But when I tried learning French again with the shoebox, I was forced to make my *own* list of words. And I got new vocabulary from the thing I *actually* cared about: Tintin comics! And the more words I learnt from Tintin, the better I got at reading Tintin. **The thing I actually cared about was both my source & destination.**
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// pic
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I think *that's* the trick. Not just for memorizing French, not even just for memorizing, but for *all learning*. It needs to go into (and ideally, also come from) things you love.
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// pics: (examples involving memory)
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// programming
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// ukulele
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// kinds of birds (thing itself)
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That's why the consensus among spaced repetition enthusiasts is that, in almost all cases, **you should make your own cards.** That way, you have a chance to make your cards meaningful to *you*.
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Speaking of which, it's time to make your own cards:
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**WHAT do you want to learn?**
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If you want to start small, here's some stuff you could memorize in a few days: Morse code, Braille, the ASL alphabet, US states & their capitals, the countries in your continent, etc
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**WHY do you want to learn X?**
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What do you want to use your knowledge *for?* (If it's for the sake of the knowledge itself, that's great! Write that.)
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Examples: "Programming -> to make games"
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**WHERE will you get your cards from?**
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sadasdsaasdasas
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But after all this, will spaced repetition be worth it for you? The results of spaced repetition only *really* show themselves after weeks or months. That's why spaced repetition isn't as popular compared to highlighting or re-reading: although it's more effective and just as easy, it *takes longer.* It's too bad we can't get a sneak peek into the future.
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Except we can. Here's a simulation-based calculator to show you how much *you* can learn with a few minutes a day over a month or so...
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// sim
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And finally, just one final self-test:
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∴ TEST A, B, C
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## Get Started Right Now
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Leitner Box:
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* + Arts & Craftsy!
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* + You can easily modify rules
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* - Can't do sound
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* - Not easily portable
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Anki:
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* + Most popular
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* + Can do sound
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* + Portable: laptop and mobile web versions
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* + Can customize decks and rules
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* - Clunky interface
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Tinycards:
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* + Very well-designed and polished
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* + Easy to try out: no need to download or even sign up
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* - Not open source
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* - Less customizeable than Anki
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GET STARTED
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**Leitner Box:** go to a nearby office supply store and buy flashcards, and a box for the flashcards. (you can also buy dividers, or make your own) print out your study calendar
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**Anki:** Download it here. Here's a tutorial by Fluent Forever
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**Tinycards.** No need for buying supplies or download or even signing up at first. Go to X and try out a few flashcards!
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In 1953, Henry Molaison had a brain surgery to get rid of his epilepsy. It also got rid of his ability to make new memories. From then on, he lived in a perpetual present. He died at 82. He stopped at 27.
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Memory is not – should not – be late nights re-reading a textbook that feels heavier than your 2AM eyelids. Memory makes us human. Memory is the mother of all our muses. It's a shame that school has left too many of us with a Pavlovian fear-response of "learning" and "memorization". I hope this interactive comic helped ease some of those fears, and given you a simple, concrete way to take back your mind, and learn better. And you'll finally recognize memory for what it is:
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It's a *superpower.*
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