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Storage strength (how deeply wired in) and retrieval strength (how accessible right now) — they vary independently. Robert Bjork's "New Theory of Disuse" (1992) proposes that any given memory carries two separate values: Property Storage strength Retrieval strength Meaning...

Quiz: LEARN / How Memory Works | updated: Jul 14, 2026

No — that fluency mostly reflects high retrieval strength in the moment, which is a weak and often misleading sign of durable learning. Re-reading keeps the material continuously in front of you, so retrieval strength stays pinned high and everything reads as "known." But recogni...

Quiz: LEARN / How Memory Works | updated: Jul 06, 2026

When you've partly forgotten it: a successful, effortful retrieval at LOW retrieval strength produces the largest gain in storage strength. This is the counter-intuitive core of Bjork's framework. If you review something you already recall fluently (high retrieval strength), you...

Quiz: LEARN / How Memory Works | updated: Jul 06, 2026

This very app schedules your cards with exactly this FSRS logic — showing each card right as you're about to forget it. Every flashcard and duel you answer feeds a per-card memory estimate; the scheduler then surfaces each item near the moment its recall probability dips toward t...

Quiz: LEARN / Spaced Repetition & the Algorithms | updated: Jul 06, 2026

Retention dipped and then partly recovered around the one-day mark, consistent with sleep consolidating memories overnight. When Murre and Dros (2015) replicated Ebbinghaus, their curve wasn't perfectly smooth — retention was a little higher around 24 hours than the pure-decay tr...

Quiz: LEARN / How Memory Works | updated: Jul 06, 2026

It interrupts the forgetting curve just before you'd forget (spacing) and forces you to recall rather than recognize (effortful retrieval) — the two strongest results in memory science. This is the payoff of the whole mission — and it's why this very app works. A well-designed sp...

Quiz: LEARN / How Memory Works | updated: Jul 06, 2026

Because re-reading produces fluency — the material looks familiar — which we mistake for actual knowledge (the illusion of competence). When you re-read, the words flow smoothly and everything feels known. Your brain reads that fluency as "I've got this." But familiarity with see...

Quiz: LEARN / Retrieval Practice | updated: Jul 06, 2026

The first two intervals are fixed, then each interval is the previous one times the ease factor. $$I_1 = 1 \text{ day}, \quad I_2 = 6 \text{ days}, \quad I_n = I_{n-1} \times EF \ (n \ge 3)$$ So with a typical starting ease of $EF = 2.5$: 1 day → 6 days → 15 days → ~37 days → ~94...

Quiz: LEARN / Spaced Repetition & the Algorithms | updated: Jul 06, 2026

Yes — Karpicke & Blunt (2011) found retrieval practice outperformed making elaborate concept maps. Karpicke & Blunt (2011) pitted retrieval practice against elaborative concept-mapping — drawing rich diagrams of how ideas connect, which intuitively feels like "deep" processing. R...

Quiz: LEARN / Retrieval Practice | updated: Jul 06, 2026

Badly written cards, cramming, and skipped days — and it can't turn memorisation into understanding. Card quality: spaced repetition needs atomic, well-formed items — one concept per card. No algorithm rescues a card asking you to recall five facts at once. Discipline: cramming...

Quiz: LEARN / Spaced Repetition & the Algorithms | updated: Jul 02, 2026