Answering a question with many good and bad answers might increase the repetition difficulty, which is a good idea to improve recall. However, at the same time, having multiple answers for the same question also builds up to interference, for long term memories interference is recall's greater foe. Each time you remember something, the single act of recalling this information make the memory it self vulnerable to interference or modification (re- consolidation). Hence if you make a mistake, you are also re- consolidating this mistake,
For an efficiency point of view, having many answers to many questions, might not be the best solution in all cases. It adds more time building the questions, typing them, or augments time used by simply clicking on the program used to memorize, and of course recall time invested in each question. A similar effect in this type of questions could be accomplished by using a distraction on the question (this of course has to do more with recognition more then active recall) but the purpose of this type of questions is to reinforce the correct answer while being exposed to a wrong answer. If D has X characteristic, the following Q&A leads only to rote memorization [Question: D has X? / Answer: yes] (I) But: [Question: D has/does not have X?/ Answer: D has X] (II) or; [Question: D or E has X? / Answer: D has X] (III) It all boils down to which is the cognitive relationship that you want to remember. in (II) you reinforce the fact that D has certain quality, in (III) you are looking to discard other probable elements that do not have this peculiar characteristic. I think that the minimum information principle (MIP), in the above descriptions, are not being applied correctly in all cases. When you apply the MIP on arbitrary information pairs, like vocabulary, its all a different matter to learn the translation rather than actually procedurally learning how to build fluency on a second language. Hence by using MIP type questions that ask for declarative answers its no wonder you don`t get the fluency on writing, reading, listening, even less talking. Germán Salízar Pareja wanakumbuka > 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 -- 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.
