{"id":373631,"date":"2026-07-12T17:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/?p=373631"},"modified":"2026-07-12T17:47:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:47:00","slug":"spaced-repetition-and-darwins-law-of-natural-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/?p=373631","title":{"rendered":"Spaced Repetition and Darwin’s Law of Natural Selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spaced repetition serves as a memory enhancement technique. While it’s established that distributing your study sessions is more effective than cramming, utilizing an app allows personalization of your spaced repetition timetable, helping you to effectively build dependable memories for any subject matter you choose.<\/p>\n

Michael Nielsen<\/a> shares an interesting discussion about his experiences with spaced repetition on Twitter:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Adopting spaced repetition memory systems has transformed my life over the last few years. Here are a few insights I’ve found useful:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen) January 28, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

He discusses his criteria for selecting what to include in his review system, how much information is just right for each entry, and the understanding that memory by itself can\u2019t provide (grasping the processes involving the memorized items). Nielsen expresses considerable enthusiasm about the advantages:<\/p>\n

\n

The primary change is that memory is no longer a random occurrence left to luck. Instead, I can assure that I will recall something with little effort: turning memory into a choice<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Numerous apps\/programs assist in managing a spaced repetition system, but Nielsen prefers Anki (ankiweb.net<\/a>), which is open-source and offers desktop and mobile applications (that sync with one another, proving beneficial when you wish to input information on a computer and review it on your mobile while waiting in line for coffee or similar).<\/p>\n

Exploring Anki, it appears quite impressive, and I’ve come to realize it can help me overcome a cognitive bias we all experience: the propensity to forget facts that contradict our beliefs.<\/p>\n

Charles Darwin acknowledges this in his autobiography:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI also adhered for many years to a golden principle, which was, whenever a published fact, a new observation or idea contradicted my general findings, I would make a note of it immediately and without fail; for I discovered through experience that such facts and thoughts were much more likely to escape from memory than those that supported my views. Due to this practice, there were very few objections to my perspectives that I hadn\u2019t at least acknowledged and tried to address.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Darwin, 1856\/1958, p123).<\/p>\n

I possess notebooks, and share Darwin\u2019s tendency to overlook \u201cunfavorable\u201d facts, yet I ponder if my cognition might be elevated by not just recording these facts, but also retaining them in memory \u2013 through a spaced repetition system. I’m going to give it a try.<\/p>\n

Links & Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anki app (ankiweb.net<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Wikipedia on spaced repetition systems<\/a><\/p>\n

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin<\/a>, 1809\u20131882, edited by Nora Barlow. London: Collins<\/p>\n

For additional insights into the science, refer to this recent review for educators: Weinstein, Y., Madan, C. R., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning<\/a>. Cognitive research: principles and implications<\/i>, 3<\/i>(1), 2.<\/p>\n

I note that Anki-based spaced repetition also provides an added benefit of retrieval practice and interleaving (other effective learning methods).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spaced repetition serves as a memory enhancement technique. While it’s established that distributing your study sessions is more effective than cramming, utilizing an app allows personalization of your spaced repetition timetable, helping you to effectively build dependable memories for any subject matter you choose. Michael Nielsen shares an interesting discussion about his experiences with spaced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176],"class_list":["post-373631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-source-mindhacks-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/373632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}