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What I would like to know is how to retain what I learn in the long-term. It's not too difficult to memorise things, either by rote memorisation or using some o

What I would like to know is how to retain what I learn in the long-term. It's not too difficult to memorise things, either by rote memorisation or using some of the techniques described here. But, how can I remember something banal that I learn today in 10 or 20 years - without using spaced repetition, as I find that is not always maintainable in the long term. Why is my brain so efficient at erasing things I went through so much trouble at one point, and for a specific purpose, to memorise. It seems to decide for itself that this piece of information is irrelevant at some point and just wipes it away. Like a overly pro-active personal assistant.

read_if_gay_ 8y ago
If you don't use it, you lose it. Spaced repetition is "using it", even if only artificially. If you want to completely avoid spaced repetition you are going to have to find some other way to consistently use whatever you have learned, which arguably might end up being more strenuous than using a spaced repetition system like Anki because these try to figure out the minimum frequency of repetition you require to retain some piece of knowledge. And they're not bad at it. The intervals between which you see a specific card usually grow to a couple months quickly. However, relearning something takes very little time compared to learning it from scratch, so unless you need to relearn things very often it might not even be worth worrying about much.
lupin3ken 8y ago
There are a bunch of evolutionary reasons that your brain forgets things that aren't used. Check this article for some related to sleep: https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/sleep https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/slee... But based on the current models of memory, you seem to be correct, your brain has a couple of criteria that it uses to determine whether or not it should retain memories. Frequency (spacing) is one, novelty could be another. Even memories learned through mnemonics can ultimately be forgotten if not reviewed. And I think the brain keeps itself plastic by optimizing "unnecessary" information out. Unfortunately, without help we can't choose which information is removed.

read_if_gay_ 8y ago

If you don't use it, you lose it. Spaced repetition is "using it", even if only artificially. If you want to completely avoid spaced repetition you are going to have to find some other way to consistently use whatever you have learned, which arguably might end up being more strenuous than using a spaced repetition system like Anki because these try to figure out the minimum frequency of repetition you require to retain some piece of knowledge. And they're not bad at it. The intervals between which you see a specific card usually grow to a couple months quickly. However, relearning something takes very little time compared to learning it from scratch, so unless you need to relearn things very often it might not even be worth worrying about much.

lupin3ken 8y ago

There are a bunch of evolutionary reasons that your brain forgets things that aren't used. Check this article for some related to sleep: https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/sleep https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/slee... But based on the current models of memory, you seem to be correct, your brain has a couple of criteria that it uses to determine whether or not it should retain memories. Frequency (spacing) is one, novelty could be another. Even memories learned through mnemonics can ultimately be forgotten if not reviewed. And I think the brain keeps itself plastic by optimizing "unnecessary" information out. Unfortunately, without help we can't choose which information is removed.