Today LessWrong published their annual census and 20% of the people use SRS in some form.
Lately we discussed at a QS meeting in Berlin why SRS doesn’t get mainstream. The folk at LessWrong aren’t really mainstream but they aren’t all QS people.
Getting 20% SRS users seems impressive to me. I wonder how many QS folks use it. Maybe we also need a census?
I’ve used SRS (Anki) to learn things like the NATO alphabet.
Possibly one reason more people don’t use SRS is that they don’t feel they have a need to memorize at all much information, with the ubiquity of the Internet.
It would be interesting to point out how they may be mistaken, and in what situations memorizing what you’d normally look up online can offer a significant advantage that outweighs the memorization costs. Of course, this would be highly specific to individual circumstances, but perhaps some patters would emerge. The burden would lie on SRS proponents.
Christian,
I looked up SRS because of your post, and am now using the Anki software.
I’m thrilled. I was really in need of something like this.
Thank you for mentioning it.
I have discussed SRS with a lot of people, and most feel (incorrectly) there is too much overhead in using the system compared to the gains. Even for many people who try it, it feels wrong somehow.
Saving a minute now is more gratifying than the promise of saving hundreds of minutes over the course of your life. Consider compound interest. We all know the future gains we will receive by investing money will be greater than the current value, but we choose the immediate gratification of spending now.
Also, even though the technology is getting easier, effectively structuring learning will always be difficult. If you just want to memorize a bunch of items–that’s easy. But if you want to break something down that is large and complicated, and be able to use your knowledge creatively–that’s hard. I have been using SR to learn jazz improvisation, and I had to read dozens of books to figure out how to structure my learning. I had to become an expert on the pedagogy before I could even begin SR.
Finally, SR alone is not optimal for creating fluency. You cannot really learn to converse with native speakers by memorizing every word and grammar rule in their language. You have to use the language for a purpose, and communicate with native speakers. SRS needs to be part of a balanced learning program.
I think we may be reaching a tipping point soon. The technology is getting easier. The benefits of SRS are becoming more widely know. I think that you will start seeing content experts designing SRS programs that are balanced with other activities. There was a good article at Salon.com about how the government is investing a lot in language education and research, to get people up to speed with Middle Eastern languages. The three essential elements are: SR; use language for a purpose; interact with native speakers.
Great insight, Jon.
I can see this discussion was a long time ago and SRS still hasn’t gone mainstream. I just did a quick search in Google Trends, and the search volume for ‘Spaced repetition system’ has not increased since 2008.
I’m an avid language learner and in this field, it seems SRS and flashcards haven’t really increased in popularity at all.
I think Jon’s last post identified most of the impediments to it becoming more widespread.
I use flashcards as much as I can, but it requires real discipline and I know a lot of my language learning friends were unable to get into the habit. They prefer just working with a tutor and going to language exchanges. I get this, because it’s generally more fun and sociable.
If anyone is interested in how I’ve learnt 3 languages - currently for Spanish, I use Anki App for spaced repetition. This has better usability versus the original Anki. And I combine this with taking online lessons with a Spanish tutor via Lingoci. I copy the vocabulary covered in each lesson over to Anki App in order to memorise it. And for listening, I listen to a lot of podcasts and news programs. I’ve experimented a lot and this is the most effective combination for me.
Hi Liam, I remain as interested in this topic as ever. In the years since I learned about SR and visited Piotr Wozniak in Poland I’ve tried to get many friends to use SR for their study, and my success rate is very low. I’ve come realize that, just as you suggest, the effectiveness of SR and its value for language learning is only evident when you are actively working hard on structuring knowledge and memorizing vocabulary. People prefer the “absorption” method, which is indeed more fun and sociable, but they often lose interest and fail, perhaps in part because it takes a very, very long time to learn a language by absorption. SR works for “holding on to progress” but you still have to do a lot of work in the initial process of structuring knowledge and memorizing.
I am a vocational trainer and I’d love to see SRS built into the online training my organisation uses for new students. I would love to see SRS functionality built into all mainstream education platforms and eventually see even uni textbooks written for it digitally rather than just printed.
It just makes sense, let the school / organisation to more heavy lifting, provide better service to the people who want to learn.
Gary, my apologies for not replying sooner. I didn’t get a notification that you had replied.
You’re totally right on it taking a longer time to learn a language through absorption and casual practice without discipline. Since my last post, I’ve continued to use spaced repetition and not only did I become fluent in Spanish in half the time it took me for French, but I’m already intermediate in German after around 3 months. I’m still using Anki, still listening to a number of podcasts (lots of new ones have popped up during the pandemic), and I’ve been taking German lessons with a teacher through LanguaTalk, which is more modern than the previous site I was using.
I’ve also managed to convince a couple of friends to use SR, and this time it worked. They’re also making good progress.
I’ve been using it a lot (Anki) for the last year or so 
Me too. Though I have trouble using it for complicated knowledge.
I work in a field where lifelong learning is effectively mandatory, and yet I’m ways surprises that my colleagues’ study methods verge on the archaeic.
Similar to the above comments, I think there’s a significant barrier to entry, and it can take quite a while for the benefits of SRS to become apparent.
Beginners should try memorizing vocab first. Then the benefits of SRS, or at least flashcards becomes very apparent.
I’ve been doing an experiment with a different kind of knowledge, trying to build up a framework of historical and biographical facts relating to 17th and 18th century European history (esp. history of science) so my reading isn’t so interrupted by trying to remember relevant facts. It’s been very interesting to notice what kind of contextual cues are useful for recall in this domain vs language learning. With vocabulary I end up using a lot of verbal tricks/sound alikes; but for the historical and biographical detail it helps to think about connections between the events. There’s a natural “fabric” of connections that helps bring the answers to mind, so ease of memorization seems to increase more quickly in the historical/biographical domain.