<story><title>Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall</title><url>https://www.efavdb.com/memory%20recall</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ren_engineer</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d be really interested to see some research into integrating spaced repetition into our actual education system. Almost everything I see about it is adults learning, I wonder how much we could speed up primary school education considering so much of the &amp;quot;base&amp;quot; stuff needed to advance is rote memorization anyway&lt;p&gt;seems like countries should be investing money in this, potentially trillions in unlocked economic potential by improving and speeding up education. I think I read something like 20-30% of medical school students use SRS, yet only a fraction of the general population uses it. Insane to me that we have a tool like this and almost nothing is being done to improve adoption.</text></item><item><author>dls2016</author><text>I was anti-memorization until I went back to graduate school for mathematics. I had forgotten (or never learned) a lot of things needed to pass qualifying exams. At some point I ran across the spaced repetition idea (maybe from the Wired SuperMemo article [0]) and I gave it a try. I ended up using it to memorize large portions of baby Rudin and Munkres&amp;#x27; Topology, as well as some algebra and a bunch of qualifying exam questions.&lt;p&gt;The qualifying exams were difficult until I reached some &amp;quot;critical mass&amp;quot; of knowledge. Then I could regurgitate proofs and even attack novel problems easily.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s an analogy here somewhere to the &amp;quot;leetcode&amp;quot; style of software engineer interview. On one hand qualifying exams and leetcode questions are a stupid gatekeeping mechanism, but on the other hand the best researchers&amp;#x2F;engineers I know have a huge number of facts and examples memorized and ready at their fingertips. I didn&amp;#x27;t think I needed to do so, but perhaps there is something to suffering through the rote memorization phase to make what comes next that much easier.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2008&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;ff-wozniak&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2008&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;ff-wozniak&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>David_R</author><text>&amp;gt;see some research...spaced repetition into our actual education system.&amp;lt;  
I have followed the research in this area closely for several years. Most of the (excellent) foundational research was done by university psychology professors who used college students as subjects; it&amp;#x27;s much harder for them to use primary school students, hence far less research with young learners. Implementing these techniques in elementary schools is more challenging then many would guess. Two good books: &amp;quot;Make it Stick&amp;quot; Brown, Roediger, McDaniel; &amp;quot;Powerful Teaching&amp;quot; Agarwal &amp;amp; Bain. PM me if you&amp;#x27;d like more info. The second book describes research with middle school students. Pooja Agarwal also hosts the informative site www.retrievalpractice.org which informs K-12 teachers and has lots of free downloads. I am involved in a startup that is beginning (pilot teachers in September) to implement spaced repetition for elementary school math.</text></comment>
<story><title>Spaced repetition can allow for infinite recall</title><url>https://www.efavdb.com/memory%20recall</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ren_engineer</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d be really interested to see some research into integrating spaced repetition into our actual education system. Almost everything I see about it is adults learning, I wonder how much we could speed up primary school education considering so much of the &amp;quot;base&amp;quot; stuff needed to advance is rote memorization anyway&lt;p&gt;seems like countries should be investing money in this, potentially trillions in unlocked economic potential by improving and speeding up education. I think I read something like 20-30% of medical school students use SRS, yet only a fraction of the general population uses it. Insane to me that we have a tool like this and almost nothing is being done to improve adoption.</text></item><item><author>dls2016</author><text>I was anti-memorization until I went back to graduate school for mathematics. I had forgotten (or never learned) a lot of things needed to pass qualifying exams. At some point I ran across the spaced repetition idea (maybe from the Wired SuperMemo article [0]) and I gave it a try. I ended up using it to memorize large portions of baby Rudin and Munkres&amp;#x27; Topology, as well as some algebra and a bunch of qualifying exam questions.&lt;p&gt;The qualifying exams were difficult until I reached some &amp;quot;critical mass&amp;quot; of knowledge. Then I could regurgitate proofs and even attack novel problems easily.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s an analogy here somewhere to the &amp;quot;leetcode&amp;quot; style of software engineer interview. On one hand qualifying exams and leetcode questions are a stupid gatekeeping mechanism, but on the other hand the best researchers&amp;#x2F;engineers I know have a huge number of facts and examples memorized and ready at their fingertips. I didn&amp;#x27;t think I needed to do so, but perhaps there is something to suffering through the rote memorization phase to make what comes next that much easier.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2008&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;ff-wozniak&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wired.com&amp;#x2F;2008&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;ff-wozniak&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pessimizer</author><text>Hundreds of millions of the world&amp;#x27;s kids were remote learning for up to a year and a half. If there was any opportunity to develop real tools to help with remote learning, it was then, but we ended up with nothing, and remote learning still sucks.&lt;p&gt;If anybody is going to integrate memory techniques into a curriculum, it&amp;#x27;ll probably be some Silicon Valley charter.</text></comment>