I also finished chapter 6, an introduction and primer on ratios.

I’m sticking to reviewing notes daily, all through my new studying process, as introduced in my article New Ways of Learning. This will be my first midterm working from the new study process.

In my new educational venture, I learned how to get an A, and I studied for an A. I also learned getting an A doesn’t mean I will remember the concepts, nor does a degree alone – regardless of grade point average – make me the best liberal student and artist I can be. I wanted general concepts to be readily accessible, yet they were buried below every day motions of survival. Was my only option to forget?

Several months ago I read an article by Gary Wolf in Wired magazine about remembering what you learn, Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm.

I was fascinated!

The article is about Piotr Wozniak’s discovery and usage of an algorithm that determines when we forget things. As mentioned in Wolf’s article, scientists discovered that individuals tend to retain information the best when studying just before the point they’re most likely to forget. In addition, Hermann Ebbinhaus, one of the scientists, found that spacing one’s study sessions dramatically improves learning and memorization. With these notions in mind, Wozniak created SuperMemo, a program utilizing an algorithm for determining the better time to study. SuperMemo adjusts to your own forgetting curve, i.e., it tells you to study at the time your most likely to forget.

Here is an image from Wired magazine demonstrating the forgetting curve:

I was very impressed by the article and inspired by Wozniak’s venture and direction, so I looked into SuperMemo. The application is built for PCs, and I’m on a MAC. Unfortunately, I only had access to the web program, and the interface felt very dated.

In addition, I wanted a portable solution: something I could use while on the bus or riding the train. This is where the iPhone comes in. With a good application, the iPhone could be the ultimate studying device, so I began searching for other possibilities.

I Googled and found an application by David McGavern called iFlash, kind of like iTunes for flash cards. It seemed very easy to manage, so I decided to give iFlash a run with two summer courses, Multicultural Psychology and Geometry with Trigonometry.

Application files are managed like decks of cards, and each deck is allowed any number of custom categories: like a play list in iTunes. For my setup, I created decks for both of my classes, and I use a new category for each chapter. I typically type notes into text files (utf-16 for math symbols) and load them into application files.

As for the interface, as mentioned, it’s very intuitive and easy to use. Following are images from the main card browser window and two views (front and back) of a card show:

Each deck, application file, is allowed a memorization system: Simple Memorization (good for cramming), Score Memorization (good for short term studying), and Interval Memorization (good for long-term studying). Interval Memorization is a customizable version of the spacing technique of studying – which I was most interested in. The application doesn’t use as an algorithm that adjusts to your forgetting curve, but it allows you to manually adjust to study intervals.

Here is an image of the interval adjustments:
:

Importantly, there is an iPhone version of iFlash in the works!

I would love to see statistics, graphs, and a forgetting curve logarithm in future releases, but for now, the application on my Macbook is doing wonders – however, I’m ecstatically anticipating the release of the iPhone version.

Notably, an iFlash demo is available for free. I purchased the licensed version well before my demo expired, a worthy and inexpensive investment of $14.95. Maybe, with our support, David McGavern of Loopware will include an interval logarithm in a future release!

I was considerably inspired by Wolf’s article on Wozniak, and I highly recommend the article. With this inspiration, I will practice the spacing technique of learning over the summer semester, and I will develop this technique through the rest of my education. Despite the lack of an automated forgetting curve algorithm, iFlash provides a simple and intuitive way for managing the spacing technique, and a similar Phone application will prove to be invaluable.

Resources and Links

Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm: 04.21.08, Gary Wolf, Wired Magazine, Issue 16.05

SuperMemo: devoted to improving memory, self-growth, creativity, time-management, and speed-learning

iFlash: Mac OS X studying and learning flash card simulator, iPhone version coming soon

Piotr A. Wozniak: Founder of SuperMemo and a very interesting person. I browsed his website, full of useful information, and I will certainly look more into it.

Source: “Social Factors Influencing Immigration Attitudes” by Charles R.Chandler and Yung-mei Tsai in Social Science Journal. 2001, Vol 38, Issue 2, pp: 177-190.

After a very nice night out with friends, on the way home, I reflected on Nero Nava’s “Oh Asa, Oh Rose.” This will be one of the last pictures taken with my trustworthy Sony Ericsson; the new iPhone is coming July 11th, and my little (well, actually big and clunky) Ericsson will dream with the fishes. “Oh Rose, I wish we can. Oh Asa, I can be your man…”

This chapter started about by defining immigrants and refugees. Immigrants are those who chose, or planned, to relocate to a new country, and refugees are those who were forced out of their country, e.g., by violence, war, and etc. The way immigrants and refugees experience adaptation to the new culture is very different, and this is due part into the factor of choice – immigrants choose and plan relocation where as refugees have little to no choice or planning.

Acculturation was a substantial subject in this chapter, and this is the “experiences and changes that groups and individuals undergo” while associating to other cultures. The book shared two very similar acculturation models for immigrants and ethnic minorities, respectively Berry (1990,1997) and LaFramboise (1993). I was particularly interested in “integrationist” from Berry’s model and the “alternationist” from LaFramboise’s model, maybe more notes on this later.

In addition to the homework, I’m considering the subject for my research project: either an aspect of communication or genetic intelligence within a multicultural context.