Creating Context

We think in chunks and we think automatically. Once we have gone through the long process of training we are able to recognise rather than remember. It isn't the same as Googling something. We don't have to search for it, it is just there. Anki takes advantage of studies of how we learn to assist in learning anything. It is 'content-agnostic' meaning it focuses on the process of learning rather than what is actually being learnt. It is a Spaced Repetition System which means it sets up a bunch of flash cards, but is able to push back the cards you get right and pull forward the ones you get wrong. It pushes back the cards you know to the point where you have to mentally search for them. Reviewing something just before you forget it is apparently the fastest way to learn something. This is because we think in connections and associations. When struggling to remember just before a thought tips into the dark, we try think of a wide variety of clues. We create new clues in the process. We create context.

Source: wikipedia

Perhaps this is part of why Method acting works. There is little point in learning just the specific fact you need to know if you don't understand the context. Anki lets you drag and drop pictures and sounds into the cards. There is this awesome site called www.forvo.com which collects recordings of words in different languages and accents. I am using Anki to learn French. Following the Fluent-Forever method, I am starting with the 625 most common words. I pick a word and then create a card by getting an image from tinyurl.com/basicimage. The process of choosing a picture adds context. I choose the one that 'looks most French'. This can be challenging and requires you to think what that even means, and if it doesn't mean anything the process of thinking to that point helps dig the memory in. I then get a recording of the word from a native speaker and drop that into the card. The card also has space for a 'personal connection' - something funny or rude normally sticks better. We seem to remember things that shock us or are about sex with ease. This was a problem for the monks who worked on memory systems, but they got over it.

The cards take a couple of minutes per word, but then the magic of Spaced Repetition takes over. You just review the cards and instead of brute force rote learning, you have a lot of fun.

I can just imagine how much fun this could have been at school. When art class, IT class and history/science/maths get mixed into one. The division between subjects is rather false anyway - specialisation works for industrial processes. Creativity is about connecting the dots.