Open thread, 30 June 2014- 6 July 2014

DanielDeRossi

Something useful to those of you who use Spaced Repetition Software:

I made a little ruby script that can turn ordered and unordered lists into easily memorable diagrams like this:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=51A281FEEAA3C35!1455&authkey=!AKtQ02Ji961f_n8&v=3&ithint=photo%2c.png https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=51A281FEEAA3C35!1457&authkey=!AMtC38EHOFcImTI&ithint=folder%2c https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=51A281FEEAA3C35!1458&authkey=!AOIm4ua5-c1TFsQ&ithint=folder%2c

It's pretty hacky (the script opens a bunch of google image searches so that you can download the pictures) but combined with the image occlusion anki addon, it has allowed me to memorize sets that are 3 time larger than I can normally memorize with Anki.

The script requires Graphviz, as well the launchy ruby gem. It can be found here: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=51A281FEEAA3C35!1459&authkey=!ACtSe9c5YnpYk9Q&ithint=file%2c.rb

Quick readme:

Graphviz must be installed and set to root, you also need the launchy ruby gem.
The program will generate a random color scheme and layout engine, which can be reassigned. Color schemes can be found here: graphviz.org/doc/info/colors.html, and layout engines can be found here: http://www.graphviz.org/cgi-bin/man?dot 3.The program will ask if you want images. If you click yes, the program will later open a bunch of browser windows equal to the amount of items in the set.
Enter the name of the graph
The program will ask for the name of the category. If you enter it, this will be the "center node". If blank, there will be no center node.
Enter your set, one item per line. When done, enter a blank line.
If you chose images, the program will open a bunch of google image searches to find images. The images should be saved as (all lowercase version of the search with spaces removed).jpg, in the same directory as the ruby file. In order to make sure you get jpgs, you should save the thumbnail that google generates, rather than saving the actual image.
A graph will be generated.
Open the graph in the image occlusion extension in anki to start memorizing it.

[anonymous]12y120

D_Malik12y00

Awesome, thanks!

One concern though: by adding colors, shapes, borders, etc., you are essentially adding extra detail/context to the memory-triggering side of the card, which will indeed improve recall when you have that detail/context available. However, in a live scenario where you actually have to remember the information, that context will likely not be available.

(An example: if you're trying to learn the locations of US states, and you get a map where each state is brightly-colored, you should probably make the map grayscale and uniformly-saturated bef... (read more)