This document discusses measuring learning and cognition through spaced repetition systems and experiments. It describes using spaced repetition to track vocabulary, skills and facts from various topics. Possible ways to measure brain performance discussed include arithmetic tests, typing speed, games, and correlating spaced repetition performance to energy levels. Challenges with measurement are noted, and passive monitoring of brain waves or physical indicators are proposed as alternatives.
7. What Can You SRS? Obvious Vocabulary/Languages Science School stuff Phone numbers Names and faces Any facts, really Not obvious Self-help/habits Music How to deal with police What organic/free range/grass-fed/certified humane actually mean Anything chunkable
8. What I’m SRSing Chinese Spanish Morse Code Braille Chess Rationality techniques Biases and fallacies Social skills People I meet Anatomy Account numbers Poetry Cooking Massage Investing Lots of nonfiction books
13. You Can Pump Up Your Brain (probably) You could try… Walking, standing, butter, fermented foods, warm showers, smart drugs, meditation, breathing exercises, biofeedback, fish oil, flaxseed oil, MCT oil, yoga, alcohol, yams, coffee, mint tea, creatine, winter swimming, dual n-back, and sleeping a lot!
14. You Can Pump Up Your Brain (probably) And you might not want to eat… Raw carrots, raw bell peppers, peanut butter, walnuts, pure sugar, bananas, raw apples, grains, tofu, onions, mushrooms, lactose, chocolate, nuts, coffee, cheese, or processed foods!
15. You Can Pump Up Your Brain (probably) Tons of ways Most won’t work for you How to find the right few? Just try them and measure the results!
16. Cool Experiments that Worked Seth Roberts: Butter + Flaxseed Oil + Warm Showers = Faster Arithmetic Dave Asprey: Not Eating Wheat = Way Better at Freecell Piotr Wozniak Free-Running Sleep = Better Memory During SRS
17. How to Measure Brain Performance? Some possible tests: Psychomotor Vigilance Test, sightreading music, Continuous Performance Tasks, typing speed tests, Test of Variables of Attention, Sudoku, crosswords, arithmetic, solitaire, blitz go, blitz chess, brain training games, dual n-back, Quake 3, Grid Wars, Tetris, Minesweeper, or just plain thinking about how sharp you are at the moment
18. How to Measure Brain Performance? Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect: Psychomotor Vigilance Test, sightreading music, Continuous Performance Tasks, typing speed tests, Test of Variables of Attention, Sudoku, crosswords, arithmetic, solitaire, blitz go, blitz chess, brain training games, dual n-back, Quake 3, Grid Wars, Tetris, Minesweeper,or just plain thinking about how sharp you are at the moment
19. How to Measure Brain Performance? Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect and are reliable: Psychomotor Vigilance Test, sightreading music, Continuous Performance Tasks, typing speed tests, Test of Variables of Attention, Sudoku, crosswords, arithmetic, solitaire, blitz go, blitz chess, brain training games, dual n-back, Quake 3, Grid Wars, Tetris, Minesweeper,or just plain thinking about how sharp you are at the moment
20. How to Measure Brain Performance? Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect, are reliable, and aren’t designed to bore you: Psychomotor Vigilance Test,sightreading music, Continuous Performance Tasks,typing speed tests, Test of Variables of Attention,Sudoku, crosswords, arithmetic, solitaire, blitz go, blitz chess, brain training games, dual n-back, Quake 3, Grid Wars, Tetris, Minesweeper,or just plain thinking about how sharp you are at the moment
21. How to Measure Brain Performance? Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect, are reliable, and aren’t designed to bore you: Psychomotor Vigilance Test,sightreading music, Continuous Performance Tasks,typing speed tests, Test of Variables of Attention,Sudoku, crosswords, arithmetic, solitaire, blitz go, blitz chess, brain training games, dual n-back, Quake 3, Grid Wars, Tetris, Minesweeper,or just plain thinking about how sharp you are at the moment Really? Is that the best we can do?
22. Aha! SRS performance == brain performance! Already doing SRS every day 100,000 reviews this year 18,000 have energy data Correlations Retention rate vs. energy: Thinking time vs. energy: Total review time vs. energy:
23. Aha! SRS performance == brain performance! Already doing SRS every day 100,000 reviews this year 18,000 have energy data Correlations Retention rate vs. energy: 0.02 Thinking time vs. energy: 0.03 Total review time vs. energy: 0.02
24. This is a lot harder to measure than I thought
25. How to Measure Brain Performance? Seth Roberts’ arithmetic test …?
26. What about passive measuring? Devices that monitor your brain waves? Physical indicators correlated to mental function? Other biofeedback devices? This would be really awesome
27. Okay, Let’s Talk Spaced repetition for the win? How would you measure brain performance? What are your experiences tracking learning and cognition? http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak http://blog.sethroberts.net/2010/03/27/why-i-use-arithmetic-to-measure-brain-function/ http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/01/29/the-buttermind-experiment/ http://blog.sethroberts.net/2010/11/19/effect-of-flaxseed-oil-on-arithmetic/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/1gl/how_to_test_your_mental_performance_at_the_moment/ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2562632
Hinweis der Redaktion
We want to measure these things so we can improve them, by doing personal experiments. I’ll spend ten minutes giving some background, and then let’s learn from each other.
HermannEbbinghaus, memorized nonsense syllables for years in the 1880s, figured out how memory worked. Experiments too boring for any other human, so had to self-experiment. Figured out forgetting curves, learning curves, the spacing effect, recency and primacy effects, and savings. Thanks,Ebbinghaus! But how do we use it?
Computers can help us track everything we’re learning and figure out when we should review each item. This is Awesome.
Automatically tracks stats for you!Real, personalized resultsBest learning methods (mnemonics vs. example sentences vs. fast as possible), environments (walking, standing, sitting), times of day, whatever--for you
How much would you pay to increase your intelligence by 10 IQ points?How much would you pay for twice as much focused concentration each day?
Looked at a few places where people proposed testing this. Hey, everyone wants to play games! Good idea, but…
Looked at a few places where people proposed testing this. Hey, everyone wants to play games! Good idea, but…
Looked at a few places where people proposed testing this. Hey, everyone wants to play games! Good idea, but…
Looked at a few places where people proposed testing this. Hey, everyone wants to play games! Good idea, but…
Looked at a few places where people proposed testing this. Hey, everyone wants to play games! Good idea, but…
I mean, seriously—my self-reported energy levels had no relationship to how well I remembered or how fast I was at remembering? This probably means that I can’t trust a single thing I subjectively feel about how well my brain is working. Like the guy who’s so drunk he doesn’t know he’s drunk, or the sleepless person who feels alert but is as good as drunk.