From lojbab@lojban.org Mon May 08 21:09:32 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 12099 invoked from network); 9 May 2000 04:09:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by m4.onelist.org with QMQP; 9 May 2000 04:09:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO stmpy.cais.net) (205.252.14.63) by mta3 with SMTP; 9 May 2000 04:09:32 -0000 Received: from bob (113.dynamic.cais.com [207.226.56.113]) by stmpy.cais.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA08325 for ; Tue, 9 May 2000 00:07:56 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4.2.2.20000508234405.00aaf760@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: vir1036/pop.cais.com@127.0.0.1 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 00:04:52 -0400 To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: OT - programming logflash Re: [lojban] Logflash In-Reply-To: <39173ACF.2938AB8D@concentric.net> References: <200005082219.SAA20125@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" At 07:10 PM 05/08/2000 -0400, Brook Conner wrote: > >From an engineering standpoint, a flash-card vocabulary drilling program >has several different components. Some of these are best left to >existing libraries (because they've been done and aren't specific to the >task at hand - displaying text and inputting it, for example). Others >are more specific, such as generating random permutations of the >vocabulary lists and tracking performance on the vocabulary. Logflash >puts the vocab into "piles" based on how well the user is doing on that >word. Deciding when to move vocabulary from pile to pile is an >interesting part of the problem. Note that for LogFlash, the algorithm for the above was precisely the one developed over several years by JCB and his first wife with hardcopy flash cards specifically for learning Loglan gismu. Apparently this was the optimal algorithm among many variations tested, though as usual he never documented what the testing and option alternatives that were found inferior. The ultimate test is in the results. People have found LogFlash boring or frustrating, but so far as I know, no one who has completed the program has had cause to complain that they hadn't thoroughly learned the words. Indeed almost 20 years after she wrote the first version of LogFlash on a TRS-80 in BASIC, and 12 years after completely relearning the Lojban vocabulary, but rarely practicing Lojban, Nora is now brushing up with LogFlash and scoring 90% plus, and her worst problems seem to be occasionally false memory links to the Loglan words she learned with LogFlash before we redeveloped the Lojban vocabulary. There were many suggestions for alterations to the algorithm, and the current LogFlash option screen allows several of the easier to implement ones. Yet even today, I make the same recommendation I followed in 1987 and 1988, use Gaining Control Mode, and the largest New Word Pile size you can stand, preferably one that gives between 15 and 25 error words per new word lesson, and do it daily without fail (this will typically take about an hour a day). In a month you'll finish the first pass through the words. Within 3 months or so, increasing your lesson size when your error rate goes down, you'll get 97% or better on the words (in my case doing 500 words in a half hour test). lojbab ---- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org (newly updated!)