On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 4:44 PM, Brainious <[email protected]> wrote:
> Gwern:
>
>>On Jun 7, 10:51 am, Gwern Branwen <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Suppose you have a '___ is not bar' / 'Foo' flashcard. Eventually you
>> memorize the three letters 'Foo' and forget the real meaning. Oops.
>>
>> The problem is that you only had 1 flashcard. You should have had '___
>> is not bar', 'Foo is not ___', '___ is quux', 'Foo is ____'. What's
>> easier to remember, 'Foo is not bar and is quux', or 'Foo, bar, foo,
>> quux', etc.?
>
> Would you mind explaining your idesa on this example?

I thought I was fairly clear.

I'll try again.

'Is Foo X?'
no

is a bad flashcard. You might just memorize 'no', nothing about Foo & X.

What you should do is have both flashcards:

'Is Foo X?'
no
'Is Foo not X?'
yes

Now there is no shortcut. What are you going to memorize, 'x = no, and
not x = yes'? Or the fact 'Foo is not X'? I know which one I would
find easier to memorize - the latter.

The principle: ask the question with enough different correct answers
that it is simpler to memorize what you want to know than to memorize
the answers themselves.

-- 
gwern

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