It seems to use a 2 decade old modification of a now 4 decades old algorithm which will be worse and waste more of the user's time than using Anki with FSRS or SuperMemo with SM-18.
You fail the whole day.
Don't have the feeling anything sticks.
Then, the next day it works right from the start.
No new insights, nothing, it just works.
It seems to be a thing with practicing motion sequences.
The problem is that in life, we are accustomed to things becoming easier as we get better at them. So you start drawing faces and it starts out feeling very difficult, but then as you practice more and more, it feels easier and easier. Of course, by the time it's feeling easy, it means that you're no longer actually getting effective practice. But nevertheless, it's the feeling that we are accustomed to. It's how we know we're getting better.
Because spaced repetition is so good at always giving you things that you will find difficult, it doesn't actually feel like you're getting better overall even though you are. The things that you are good at are hidden from you and the things that you are bad at are shown to you. The result is a constant level of difficulty, rather than the traditional decreasing level of difficulty.
I've encountered this problem myself. I built a language learning app for fun, and some of my users feel like they're not learning very much compared to alternatives that don't use spaced repetition. In fact, it's the exact opposite. They learn much more quickly with mine, but they don't have that satisfying feeling of the lessons becoming easy. (Because if I gave them easy challenges, it wouldn't be as productive!)
I'm not sure what the best way to solve this problem is. I would much appreciate any advice.
You fail miserably at the test at the start of each chapter, and crush it at the end.
The difficult part is deciding how the tests are spread out.
Serious answer: All the dark patterns.
Loot boxes even if they only give users a digital hat, small animated bird (like the green one, but not) doing a silly dance when users get enough correct answers, some weird phrases sprinkled amongst the lessons which make the users laugh.
Just, please let them have an off switch for people like us :)
The language learning app people could try scheduling monthly video chats with native speakers (swapping turns halfway through so it's mutually beneficial) and notice their proficiency improve.
Failing to do that, one might consider that instead of focusing on how hard each card feels, but rather the size of the corpus that they have "under their belt". This is the case if you're constantly adding new cards - if you are and your cards/day is stable, then you have an ever increasing mound of memorized knowledge.
If you aren't adding new cards, then the cards/day will inevitably go down, barring some actual cognitive issue.
It's a matter of what you focus on as your measure of success.
IMO the way around users feeling like spaced recognition isn't progression is by redefining progression away from memorizing vocabulary into into becoming proficient in conversation both listening and speaking. If spaced recognition vocab is just one feature of a holistic experience, users will judge their progression holistically.
I'm really waiting for that one app that finally connects ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode or Gemini Live to a context-aware and well trained language tutor. I can already have impromptu practice sessions with both in Mandarin and English but they quickly lose the plot regarding their role as a tutor. I'd love to have them available as part of a learning journey. I can study vocab and flash cards all day but the second that voice starts speaking sentences and I need to understand in real time, I freeze up. The real progress is conversing!
You want your users to be like weight lifters. No lifter comes out the gym saying, “Man that was the best workout, felt so easy,” to the contrary, lifters use progressive overload to induce difficulty because that difficulty connects to the results they want.
For your users, you need some way to measure the outcome, so that you can show them, “hey look, that mild discomfort lead to more progress on what you care about,” and then you need to consistently message that some difficulty is good.
Mindset change takes consistency and time. Won’t happen over night. You’ll know you succeeded when students become aware of “hey, I’m not learning as well if it doesn’t feel difficult”, and then react by increasing the challenge.
We keep forgetting stuff. But we can remember it more by active recalling. And there is an evidence that you can recall with intervals that grow, to make it optimal. That’s it really. Everything else is tooling on top of that simple fact.
Whether memorization is useful on its own largely depends on the task.
scratchyone•1h ago