Contents
Introduction
Principles
- Association
- In time
- an electronic professor
Together
An " optimal " sample program: " the formula "
The most effective way to learn a language is to soak itself
inside: to visit the country where one speaks it by avoiding the
people who know your own language. You will have many troubles
because of the misunderstandings, but you will learn quickly.
On the other hand, if you do not have this opportunity, or of
limited time, one needs other means. Here are some elementary
principles of empirical psychology, and the examples of their
applications.
Warning: I am not a psychologist, and the experimental
knowledges are simply those which I remember; -), without guarantee.
One do not know all the details of the mechanisms of the
memory. But it is known that at a certain moment, there is
information which does not exist in the mind, and which later, this
information is well anchored in the mind.
Between the two points of time, information must be
represented in a certain way in the brain, or between the brain and
the elements external (what one hears, sees, etc). This supposes the
idea materialist and reductionist according to whom that the mind
is a phenomenon which occurs in the neural network of the brain and
also in a sense in the " neural network " comprised of all the forms of
society. I will restrict myself here with the memory which one
wants to put in the brain such as it is independent of the external
elements.
The brain has a highly parallel architecture. I.e., there
is much activity which occurs in different " subsystems " at the same
time. Sometimes these " subsystems " are separate spatially, but it
is thought that often it between-overlap. These activities correspond
sometimes to the conscious thought, but also to the " sub-conscious
", sometimes to the emotions, and sometimes to the activities of
mechanical adjustment the such pressure of blood, the level of sugar,
etc.
(1) a way of adding something with the memory easily is to
associate already coded elements. Physically, this probably
corresponds to the reinforcement of the synapses (of connected between
the neurons), or to the creation of new synapses. (There is no
creation of new neurons after the age of approximation five years.)
When one tries to include/understand something, it is a
process of comparison in terms of already coded ideas, including, for
example, in many intellectual traditions, in theory, codings of
logic known as " first order classical logic ".
If one can make this process of integration with what one
knows already, memorizing can be very strong.
(2) Another way is to add a " knowledge cérebrale " whose
several elements are not coded. Mentally, you intuitively try to
memorize, without the assistance of already known things. Physically,
you make random activity between neurons, while waiting for that
something " sticks ". Once that that " sticks ", you reinforce these
synapses.
This method is much slower and less effective than the first,
but when nothing is known, one has to begin somewhere. It is like
that (partly) that the foetus and the baby learn.
Thus, it is easier to memorize by using already known
elements, but one is not completely obliged.
If one learn something during five minutes, one minute later,
one will remember some easily. Ten minutes later, there will not be
too much difficulty to remember some. But one year after (if nothing were
done since the initial training), one will be astonished to remember
of it, except if it were an exceptional event.
How does the memory in time disappear, if there are as few
elements of association as possible?
(1) the experiments in laboratory were made while requiring
of the subjects to study and learn from the lists of syllables
entirely without meaning, therefore by avoiding easy association, except
for association with the letters of the alphabet and their sounds.
The subjects were tested immediately to check that they had
learned well, and also after a certain time, of a few hours or several
days.
It was found that their successes on the tests decrease
exponentially (approximately) with the time chosen for the test of
checking. At 24 hours after the initial training, one retains
approximation 90% in means. What can be surprising, but if it is
tested, by giving time for the ideas to remake surface, by writing
what one " guesses " that one learned the previous day on a sheet of
paper, and then checks, one will see...
Algebraically, one can write
F = f0 exp(- T / 10) where F is the fraction selected and T is time in days. Thus, after ten days, one will
retain of them only 30% according to this formula.
(2) Then, a new experiment was made. It was like the first,
but immediately after the test to measure the fraction
selected, one required about entirely
relearning the
list of syllables meaningless, as at the beginning. After a certain
time (different for different subjects), one made a second test.
The result was that if one makes a relearning after 24 hours,
the rate of reduction is much slower. The formula above becomes
something as
F = f0 exp(- T / 70) where T is always in days.
It is necessary a week then before one goes down towards 90%
of retention. So then, a new relearning is made, the rate at
which memory is " lost " slows
down still, and so on.
If one learns something at the day
T, but
one test and relearns it at the days
T + 1,
T + 7 and
T + 28
one will arrive at
F = f0 exp(- T / 3650) (approximately). I.e., that
one will retain then approximation 90% one year later, while having
made only one initial lesson and three revisions, and without the
revisions being too difficult. Obviously, you could carry out a
fourth revision after one year so that it is retained for a good
fraction of your life.
These values probably correspond to the various physical
events in the brain which code the memory, and it would be necessary
to see the recent literature to see whether they are really the
optimal values. But those go, at least in my own experiment, and
according to what I recall of the basic texts of psychology.
Physical explanation: So that coding valid for a scale of
time is valid, it is necessary that coding at the shorter time of
scale was made. But it is enough that coding short term remains in
the sub-conscious until the moment when one ratifies it by making the
transfer towards a coding with the long term (relative). To bring
back the idea in the sub-conscious before it is necessary to transfer
towards a coding longer term is perhaps useless, and, in particular
for the training of a list of ordinary words, is boring!
A professor who nicely corrects you with an infinite
patience
When you study a list of word, or some element
of grammar, to see which you have retained, to relearn that that you
have forget, to them relearn, and of you retest some time until it
that you of remember quickly of each word foreign in answer with a
word of your own language, it be necessary a professor very patient.
One can use a paper sheet as professor, and retest several
times with empty sheets on words which have not been learnt well.
But one is likely
to remember these words only according to the same sequence. If one
test with a random order, the training is stronger.
Thus, here is a compilable
software in f77
with pgplot (rather on Sun or Unix machine, but perhaps also on a PC).
A way of putting all that together is the following.
(1) the student uses the software to learn
a list of words, which he or she prepares
himself or herself in a file, that he or she names
including a date such as
981008lecon.txt . He or she
associates a more or less large " value " to mark the importance of
the word in the file. (Usually, I advise values of 3 or 2.)
(2) By using this software, the first time that one meets the
word one uses the principle
of association. One
creates a small story for the word, using anything which one finds
in one's imagination, images, words of other languages, the emotions,
etc.
For example, for this memory of
QN repeat it slowly please
REP a'p dzara' a'hista' bata'i'ye'
one could associate:
a'p: a harp (musical instrument), dzara': a
Russian tsar, a'hista': _our_ own history,
bata'i'ye': a battle with an Englishman who says " yeh " (yes).
To put it together, one can thus to imagine tsar Russian with
toothing-stone in front of him (to remember that " a' p " is at the
beginning), on the battle field with English which says " yeh ", and
being noticed that Napoleon is there and thus actually it acts of "
our " (" our ") own history all in the medium of the
phrase/bataille. And it is necessary to add that the tsar (or
Napoleon) request with the other to repeat slowly because it did not
include/understand completely well.
It is stupid, but now that you know this small story, and
provided that you have the good pronunciation, you will have evil to
forget one of the most significant sentences for the beginner in
hindi.
(3) Then, it is useless to relearn this list of words several
days of continuation, or each two or three days. It is necessary to
space relearnings in an optimal way
in time, in
particular that 24 hours.
For example,
let us suppose that one has 16 sessions
of two or three hours available during five weeks, on average three
and one third " lessons " per week.
With only one week "
intensive " and in all 16 sessions, so that 200 words are retained
during one year with 90%, a good formula, where T
is the date in days, is then:
first week
T = 1 : to learn a list of 50 words, making turn the software,
using association at
the beginning, and continuing until (ideally) a score of 50, or if not
up to a level which you consider satisfactory (1 session)
T = 2 : to revise (with the software) the list of the day précedent; and to learn (with the software) a new list of 50 words, in the same way (2
sessions: 1 revision + 1 training)
T = 3 : to revise only the second list; to learn a
third list of 50 words (2 sessions: 1 revision + 1 training)
T = 4 : to revise only the third list; to learn a
fourth list of 50 words (2 sessions: 1 revision + 1 training)
T = 5 : to revise only the fourth list (1 session)
the weekend: rest you without concern!
second week
T = 9 : to revise the first list (1 session)
T = 10 : to revise the second list (1 session)
T = 11 : to revise the third list (1 session)
T = 12 : to revise the fourth list (1 session)
third and fourth weeks
nothing to make
fifth week
T = 29 : to revise the first list (1 session)
T = 30 : to revise the second list (1 session)
T = 31 : to revise the third list (1 session)
T = 32 : to revise the fourth list (1 session)
And here are, 200 words learned well for the year. By naming
the files with dates, it will be easy to revise with approximation the
good dates. Useless to be maniac on the deadlines, an accuracy of 10%
to 30% is probably sufficient. (A the limit, if the first revision is
carried out two days after the initial training, it will be harder
than if you had done it after only one day, but probably will give a
reasonable result.)
Good training!
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