Re: CONLANG: Re: Project for a "lexicon exrciser"

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>>LogFlash is oriented to typing words, not choosing alternatives.
>
>Of course, typing words contribute to fixing them into memory. However,
>reducing the amount of required actions reduces the possibilites of
>non-significant errors (typos and so on) which would be rejected by the
>program, frustrating the user. In particular, Lojban do not have diacritics
>or characters difficult to type, but in general this would not be true.


LOgFlash has some limited support for diacritics, though only those that are
part of the standard IBM PC character set.  It takes a letter and a symbol
suggesting the diacritic andreplaces the two typed characters with a single
diacritic character.  This of course is not well documented for outsiders
since we haven't ever released the program for general use.

>>LogFlash has four modes, the technical names for which I forget, but:

The four modes are

"New Word" - used for a rapid survey of the vocabulary by dilettantes - it
involves on recognition practice.  It was intended to allow people to
get through the word list once quickly so they know the scope of
the vocabulary before they get bogged down in sometimes painful intensive
practice.  Serious use of "Gaining Control" mode as described below takes
a commitment to use the program essentially daily, and for 1000 words or more
probably as long as an hour a day - if you try to do 10 words a day in
Gaining Control mode, it will take you 100 days to complete the word list
just one time, and you will have forgotten the words at the beginning of the
list by then.  So New Word Review mode was designed to let someone spend the
15 minutes a day and be able to get through20 or 30 words a day, instead of
more likely 10 in Gaining Control mode.

"Gaining Control" - the main learning mode for LogFlash.  Using a ladder
system, you must get a word right 3 times in recogtnition, and then twice
in recall before it is considered "under control".  Errors are drilled
until the user gets them right 6 times in a row, and then dropped to the
bottom of the ladder.  It works best when the number of words chosen
generates around 15-20 errors in a new word lesson, which for most people is
around 40 new words per day and takes about an hour a day.  When all words
are "under control", the user must choose a new mode.  The program
does a very limited sprinkling of words that have been undercontrol for
a while to give some chance to make sure they are not forgotten, but if you
bog down in gaining control for more than around 60 days, there will be
significiant losses.

"Maintenance" is for people who have gotten through all words in the
New Word pile, and most are "Under control".  The under control words
are drilled as recall, and erros are dropped to the bottom of the
ladder to be worked up through recognition and recall again.  The first time
through the under control words after leaving "gaining control" mode, one
typically gets 40-50% of the words wrong because of the 30-60 lag since the
words made it into the under control category (this may be somewhat better
these days because of the sprinking review, but no one has ever given us data
so we can analyze this %^( ), but then each successive time through, the
error rate drops in half (and you are generally obliged to enlarge the
set of words tested each day to stay close to the 15-20 error ideal).
In my case, early in the development of the curret program, it took me around
5 times throughthe words -a round 2 months, before I was close to 95%
accuracy on recall, by which time I could do 500 words in a half hour or so.
The target for "maintenance mode" is 97% accuracy, or no more than around
30 errors in an entire list of 1000 words. - I made it to 98%.

If you achieve mastery of a word list with LogFlash, it is essentially
with you forever.  After as long as 3 years witthout practicing the words,
I have done quick forays into the program, and I get 80% correct for a
couple of lessons and then 90% accurate once my fingers get used to typing
that fast on words lists of 100 or more.

But in spite of this, we have also included

"Brush UP" mode, for people who have dropped the language for a while and
not practiced.  Brush UP is essentially the same as "Gaining control", but
has one fewer iteration of recognition.  My experience has been that
words once mastered have essentially no problem with recognition, so I have used
 this mode with100+ words per lesson.

Hope this summary helps.  Someday. we'l have a users manual that will actually
get into the details of startegy fo rusing the program.  Don't hold your
breath.

lojbab