Cognition, Learning, and Self-Tracking - Quantified Self 2011

Cognition and Learning
May 29, Quantified Self 2011
Nick Winter
nick@skritter.com

Two Topics Today
Measuring Learning
+
Measuring Cognition

Measuring Learning
(measuring our learning speed and how much we remember)
Tracking it
Improving it

Ebbinghaus and Memory

Spaced Repetition

Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS)
Anki, SuperMemo
Skritter (my baby)

What Can You SRS?
Obvious
Vocabulary/Languages
Science
School stuff
Phone numbers
Names and faces
Any facts, really
Not obvious
Self-help/habits
Music
How to deal with police
What organic/free range/grass-fed/certified humane actually mean
Anything chunkable

What I’m SRSing
Chinese
Spanish
Morse Code
Braille
Chess
Rationality techniques
Biases and fallacies
Social skills
People I meet
Anatomy
Account numbers
Poetry
Cooking
Massage
Investing
Lots of nonfiction books

Super Simple Self Experiments

Measuring Cognition
(measuring the performance of our brains)
Why?
How?

Brain Performance is Important
+10 IQ = $XXXXX?
2x focus = $XXXXX?

You Can Pump Up Your Brain (probably)
You could try…
Walking, standing, butter, fermented foods, warm showers, smart drugs, meditation, breathing exercises, biofeedback, fish oil, flaxseed oil, MCT oil, yoga, alcohol, yams, coffee, mint tea, creatine, winter swimming, dual n-back, and sleeping a lot!

And you might not want to eat…
Raw carrots, raw bell peppers, peanut butter, walnuts, pure sugar, bananas, raw apples, grains, tofu, onions, mushrooms, lactose, chocolate, nuts, coffee, cheese, or processed foods!

Tons of ways
Most won’t work for you
How to find the right few?
Just try them and measure the results!

Cool Experiments that Worked
Seth Roberts:
Butter + Flaxseed Oil + Warm Showers = Faster Arithmetic
Dave Asprey:
Not Eating Wheat = Way Better at Freecell
Piotr Wozniak
Free-Running Sleep = Better Memory During SRS

How to Measure Brain Performance?
Some possible tests:
Psychomotor Vigilance Test, sightreading music,
Continuous Performance Tasks, typing speed tests,
Test of Variables of Attention, Sudoku, crosswords,
arithmetic, solitaire, blitz go, blitz chess, brain training
games, dual n-back, Quake 3, Grid Wars, Tetris,
Minesweeper, or just plain thinking about how sharp you
are at the moment

Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect:
Minesweeper,or just plain thinking about how sharp you
are at the moment

Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect
and are reliable:
are at the moment

Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect,
are reliable, and aren’t designed to bore you:
Psychomotor Vigilance Test,sightreading music,
Continuous Performance Tasks,typing speed tests,
Test of Variables of Attention,Sudoku, crosswords,
are at the moment

Some possible tests that don’t have a big learning effect,
are reliable, and aren’t designed to bore you:
Psychomotor Vigilance Test,sightreading music,
Continuous Performance Tasks,typing speed tests,
Test of Variables of Attention,Sudoku, crosswords,
are at the moment
Really? Is that the best we can do?

Aha! SRS performance == brain performance!
Already doing SRS every day
100,000 reviews this year
18,000 have energy data
Correlations
Retention rate vs. energy:
Thinking time vs. energy:
Total review time vs. energy:

Aha! SRS performance == brain performance!
Already doing SRS every day
100,000 reviews this year
18,000 have energy data
Correlations
Retention rate vs. energy: 0.02
Thinking time vs. energy: 0.03
Total review time vs. energy: 0.02

This is a lot harder to measure than I thought

Seth Roberts’ arithmetic test
…?

What about passive measuring?
Devices that monitor your brain waves?
Physical indicators correlated to mental function?
Other biofeedback devices?
This would be really awesome

Okay, Let’s Talk
Spaced repetition for the win?
How would you measure brain performance?
What are your experiences tracking learning and cognition?
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2010/03/27/why-i-use-arithmetic-to-measure-brain-function/
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/01/29/the-buttermind-experiment/
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2010/11/19/effect-of-flaxseed-oil-on-arithmetic/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/1gl/how_to_test_your_mental_performance_at_the_moment/
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2562632

Cognition, Learning, and Self-Tracking - Quantified Self 2011

by nickwinter on May 29, 2011

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