BEFN$?FN Mnemosyne and Anki :qXi[Xj\j#=fkfc`X De\dfjpe\Xe[8eb`jgXZ\[i\g\k`k`fejpjk\dj D BY DAVID A. HARDING don’t have to review 4000 flash cards For a spaced repetition system to only 90 reviews a day to keep more than every day. Instead, I only need to re- work, you must tell it how well you re- 4,000 flash cards memorized. That’s @view a handful, sometimes less than member a fact each time you answer its how I reviewed just three flash cards a a dozen, because a software spaced rep- flash card (i.e., you grade your mem- minute, for 30 minutes a day for 18 etition system (SRS) predicts when I’ll ory). The program uses your grade to months to memorize more than 4,000 forget each flash card and makes me re- predict when you’ll forget that fact. Each flash cards. And I don’t intend to stop: view it before I forget [1]. How can a time you remember something correctly, In 30 years, with the same routine, I plan program predict when I’ll forget some- the program schedules it further away. to memorize (and keep memorized) thing? The program, or rather its author, For example, if you tell it you learned the more than 100,000 flash cards. knows about the forgetting curve, which Pythagorean theorem today, it makes In 1987, Dr. Piotr Wozniak wrote Su- means that people forget new memories you recall it tomorrow; if you answer perMemo, the first commercial spaced faster than they forget old memories. For correctly, it makes you recall it in six repetition program; he continues to de- example, if you just learned the Pythago- days, then in 12 days, then 20 days, and velop and sell it for Microsoft Windows. rean theorem today and you don’t re- then 30, 50, 100 days, and so on. Within In this article, I’ll introduce two free soft- view it again, you’ll probably forget it by the first 18 months, you may only need ware programs – Mnemosyne and Anki next week, but if you remember it from to review each card 12 times. For 4,167 – that both use modified versions of that high school, you’ll probably remember it flash cards, that’s 50,000 reviews, which 1987 SuperMemo algorithm [2]. for at least the next year. sounds like a lot but it’s an average of De\dfjpe\ Mnemosyne is named for the Greek goddess of memory and mother of the muses, but the name also belongs to a Euro- pean species of butterfly that Mnemosyne uses as its mascot [3]. To install Mnemosyne, start the Synaptic package manager – System | Administration | Synaptic Package Manager – and enter mnemosyne in Syn- aptic’s Quick Search box. Then mark the package for installa- =`^li\(1De\dfjpe\Ëjgi\]\i\eZ\j[`Xcf^% =`^li\)18[[`e^Xe\nZXi[`eDe\dfjpe\% tion and click the Apply button. 52 ISSUE 02 UBUNTU USER Mnemosyne and Anki BEFN$?FN Beneath the Answer field indicate how well you remembered the is an option to Add vice answers. If you select any of them, Mne- versa too. Marking this box mosyne won’t show you this card again, creates a second card for at least not until tomorrow. To display a every card you enter – the tool-tip describing what each button in- second card’s question dicates, mouse over the grading buttons. field contains the first To focus your studying on one particu- card’s answer and its an- lar category or group of categories, go to swer field contains the first Deck | Activate Categories (Figure 4). By card’s question. To com- default, Mnemosyne activates all catego- plete the card, choose its ries. If you always memorize cards initial grade, which I’ll dis- within minutes of entering them, you =`^li\*1De\dfjpe\`ei\m`\ndf[\% cuss in more detail later. If might not find this feature useful, but if you’re not sure, choose you get a backlog of cards to memorize, Once the package is installed, go to the grade zero (Figure 3). You can tab be- this feature helps prioritize your study. Applications | Education menu and click tween the text fields and press Ctrl+0 Mnemosyne and all spaced repetition Mnemosyne to start the program, or type through Ctrl+5 to add the flash card systems predict when you’ll forget the Alt-F2 to open the application launcher with the corresponding grade. answer to a flash card and schedule a re- and type mnemosyne. Mnemosyne doesn’t limit cards to view of the question shortly before then. Before you try Mnemosyne, you question and answer pairs or plain text. Mnemosyne schedules cards daily, so should read this warning: By default, When you add cards, right clicking on you should run it daily. If you miss a few Mnemosyne collects anonymous statis- the question or answer field brings up days here and there, Mnemosyne adapts. tics about how effectively you memorize the context menu. In that menu, the When you start Mnemosyne, it first your flash cards. The program’s author, three-sided option lets you make foreign- shows the questions it thinks you’ll for- an associate professor at Ghent Univer- language flash cards with a written get, in the order in which it thinks you’ll sity in Belgium, plans to use these statis- form, pronunciation, and translation. forget them. Answer each question the tics to improve Mnemosyne’s card When you add a three-sided flash card, same way you did before. Each time you scheduling algorithm. I’ve looked at the Mnemosyne generates two real flash answer correctly, Mnemosyne schedules statistics; they don’t include any mate- cards. Selecting the Add vice versa too the next review of the question further rial on your cards or anything about the checkbox generates four flash cards. into the future. Because I’ve been using user; however, you can prevent Mne- The Add Image and Add Sound op- Mnemosyne for more than a year and a mosyne from sending these statistics. Go tions do what you expect. half, the program schedules some of my to the Settings menu and clicking the In either the question or answer field, cards 500 days into the future. Configure Mnemosyne option (Figure 1). you can enter standard HTML markup, To stop the uploads, uncheck Upload including formatting and tables. You can <[`k`e^:Xi[j Anonymous Logs in the configuration di- also render mathematical formulas with As you continue using Mnemosyne, alog and look at the other options. I like LaTeX by enclosing the formula between you’ll probably find mistakes in your the option to increase the font size for “<$>” and “”. cards or ways to make them easier to re- characters that use a non-Latin (non- member. To edit the current card, go to English) character set. Setting this op- C\Xie`e^Xe[I\m`\n Deck | Edit Card. Find other cards by tion makes reading Japanese and Chi- Next, exit the Add Cards dialog to return going to Deck | Edit Deck. Pressing the nese flash cards much easier. In the Rep- to the default learning and review mode. Delete key deletes the current card, and etition Process section, the “number of In the learning mode, Mnemosyne dis- then Mnemosyne asks you to confirm grade zero cards to hold in your hand” plays questions, one after an- sets the number of unmemorized cards other, until you learn them all. you want to review over and over again When you know the answer or until you memorize them. Clicking OK realize that you don’t know the saves your new settings, and then you answer, click the Show Answer can exit the configuration dialog. button. In addition to showing the an- 8[[`e^:Xi[j swer, Mnemosyne also activates Clicking Deck | Add Cards opens a dialog six buttons, numbered 0-5, with three fields: category, question, and below the answer. Buttons 0 and answer (Figure 2). If you plan to enter 1 indicate that you didn’t remem- cards from many different subjects, I rec- ber the answer or got it wrong. If ommend entering each subject as a dif- you select either, Mnemosyne ferent category. Later, I’ll explain how to will show you a few other un- hide some categories and make a custom memorized cards and then dis- =`^li\+1De\dfjpe\ËjXZk`mXk\ZXk\^fi`\j[`Xcf^ flash card deck. play this card again. Buttons 2-5 n`k_k_\fecpk_\CXk`eZXk\^fipXZk`m\% UBUNTU USER ISSUE 02 53 BEFN$?FN Mnemosyne and Anki Most plugins come as ZIP files, so you must unzip them and put them in the Mnemosyne plugin directory, .mnemos- yne/ plugins. 8eb` Anki’s author wrote the program to help him learn Japanese, so he gave it the name of the English pronunciation of the Japanese word for memorizing. To in- stall the anki package, use Synaptic (see previous instructions for installing Mne- mosyne). To start the program, select Anki from the Applications | Education menu [4]. Anki doesn’t upload any user statistics =`^li\.18eb``ei\m`\ndf[\% =`^li\,18eb`Ëjgi\]\i\eZ\j[`Xcf^% automatically, but you have the option of keeping a copy of your deck on Anki’s the fields and press Ctrl+Enter to add online server, which makes it easy for the card to your deck. Icons above the you to use the program on multiple com- text fields let you add formatting, audio, puters and lets you use Anki’s online graphics, and LaTeX math formulas. version. To start, set up an account on To get three-sided or even more ad- the Anki website and then go to Settings vanced cards, edit Anki’s models. To add | Preferences, click the Save & Sync tab, a new model in the Add Cards screen, and enter your username and password. press the green plus sign (+) next to the You can change other settings in both Model drop-down menu. Anki comes the Preferences dialog and from the Set- with models for learning Japanese and tings menu. I suggest you restrict your two Chinese dialects, but you can add changes to the Preferences and Font & another Basic model and customize it. Colors dialogs until you get used to Anki After adding the new Basic model, click (Figure 5). Later, I’ll explain how to ad- the Edit Model icon next to the plus sign, =`^li\-18[[`e^Xe\nZXi[`e8eb`% just the Current Model settings. give the model a new name, and set up the model’s parameters. On the Fields the deletion before removing the card 8[[`e^:Xi[j tab, set up the parameters of each fact, permanently. To add cards, select Add Items from the and use the Cards tab to set up how Edit menu (Figure 6). In Anki, you don’t Anki should generate cards using the @dgfik`e^Xe[ 54 ISSUE 02 UBUNTU USER Mnemosyne and Anki BEFN$?FN Mnemosyne, Anki has only four grades: mosyne – but you should still review Again, Hard, Good, Easy. Beneath each your Anki cards at least once a day. grade, Anki prints the amount of time until you’ll next see this card if you give <[`k`e^:Xi[j it that grade. When learning or reviewing cards, you To focus your study by disactivating can edit the current card by going to Edit unimportant cards and prioritizing im- | Edit Current, and Edit | Edit Deck lets portant cards, go to the Deck Properties you edit any card in the deck. dialog in the Settings menu. The Sus- pend Cards field contains a list of tags. @dgfik`e^Xe[ @eZcl[`e^Yfelj:; U Access your documents from anywhere UÊ Ài>ÌiÊ>ÊL}]ÊÜÊÀÊÜiLÃÌi UÊ Õ`ÊVÕÃÌÊ}À>« ÃÊÊÌ iÊÜiL FI;8Q@E<%:FD&JG<:@8C
Memory Reminder
