Augmenting Long-term Memory

Abstract

Augmenting Long-term Memory explores personal memory systems, that is, systems designed to improve the long-term memory of a single person. The author’s personal experience and observations using the Anki system, a spaced repetition software program, led him to believe memory is central to problem solving and creativity. As such, he argues against the disparaging views of the mere importance of memory rote memorization and explores other patterns of Anki use: syntopic reading using Anki, the use of one big deck, avoiding orphan questions, cultivating strategies for elaborative encoding or forming rich associations, and addressing challenges presented by using Anki to store facts about friends and family and mastering procedural versus declarative memory. The author acknowledges the debate and limitations of external memory aids in contrast with internalized understanding. Finally, he considers distributed practice and the role of cognitive science in the design of systems to augment cognition. – AI-generated abstract.