On Jun 10, 1:44 pm, Brainious <[email protected]> wrote:
> Would you mind explaining your idesa on this example?

I think I can provide another kind of example.  I'm learning the
Chinese radicals (a finite set of graphic elements that combine to
constitute the practically infinite set of Chinese characters),
several of which are similar-looking and thus easy to confuse.  So I
wanted to make cards to practice distinguishing similar radicals, such
as:

prompt: [力, 刀]
response: [lì (strength), dāo (knife)]

But with that card alone, I'll soon memorize just saying to myself,
"strength, knife," without even looking at which radical shape is
which.  However, I added a second card, with the two radicals
reversed:

prompt: [刀, 力]
response: [dāo (knife), lì (strength)]

Now, whichever card I see, I am forced to pay attention to the
differences between the two radicals' shapes in order to come up with
the right answer.  This can be extended to cards containing more than
two radicals to distinguish, by adding enough cards with different
permutations of the orders, e.g., [米, 禾, 木, 釆], [木, 釆, 禾, 米], and [釆,
禾, 米, 木].  You don't need a card for every possible permutation of
your information, just enough so that you force yourself to memorize
the information itself, rather than simply recognizing the card and
answering reflexively without thinking.

I also have cards testing each of the individual radicals alone.  It
may seem like a lot more work to have multiple cards for each piece of
info, but beyond the fact that it solidifies my real-world recall when
away from the computer (because the info is not tied exclusively to a
single context), it also actually saves Mnemosyne-time because over
the long run it keeps me from making the same errors over and over
again.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"mnemosyne-proj-users" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/mnemosyne-proj-users?hl=en.

Reply via email to