An insight I had while tweaking the algorithm is that spaced repetition algorithms, like FSRS-6 which Alif uses (and Anki) are good for modelling recall of a learned fact, but not for the actual initial “encoding” or learning, the first transition from short-term memory to long-term memory. This might be well known in the language-learning community, but was something I hadn’t thought about. There’s a few ways I tried to address this. The first was scheduling – I now differentiate between a card being “acquired” and a card that has been learnt. For new cards, I make sure they show up at least 3 times during the same session, and I have a separate system based on Leitner-boxes (an early form of spaced repetition), with three “boxes” of 4 hours, 1 day and 3 days that the cards have to move through. Once through, they “graduate” to the normal FSRS scheduling.
— ❐ The language learning holy grail addressing ~ SR is for modelling recall of learned facts, not initial learning