EDIT: I am canceling this contest because I feel that the structure of the incentives were poorly thought out (see gwern's comments). I will be posting a new better structured contest in the near future (now posted). If you feel this is unfair or otherwise feel slighted, please contact me at my username at gmail.com.
I'm interested in making projects happen on Less Wrong. In order to find out what works and to inspire others to try things too, I'm sponsoring the following small project:
I hereby offer a prize to the first person to submit a good summary of the evidence on Spaced Repetition to the main page. The winner will get the prize, currently: $265 + 40 to charity (see comments)
The summary should address at least the following questions:
- What spacing is best?
- How much does spaced repetition actually help memory?
- Does spaced repetition have hidden benefits or costs?
- Does the effectiveness vary across domains? How much?
- Is there research on the kinds of questions that work best?
- What questions do researchers think are most important?
- Is there any interesting ongoing research? If so, what is it on?
- What, if any, questions do researchers think it is important to answer? Are there other unanswered questions that would jump out at a smart person?
- What does spaced repetition not do that people might expect it to?
I'm not quite willing to chipin for the individual in question. But I'm happy to donate $20 to the charity of their choice.
Can you explain your reasons?