Memory Chain Model
Memory Chain Model is a memory model championed by Dr Jaap Murre whose Captain Mnemo software might have competed with early SuperMemo for priority in the field of spaced repetition. Captain Mnemo, however, did not benefit from a user base that could provide data to verify the model. Memory chain model was employed in a wide range of research on various phenomena ranging from amnesia to website traffic. Practical application of the model has probably suffered a misfortune of being born in the academic environment that may, paradoxically, be less conducive for long-term practice-oriented research (as compared with a commercial setting). While researchers need to battle for grants, I was always able to tap into resources of SuperMemo World for support. Many a SuperMemo have been born and died due to the flow of programmers, however, it is even harder to retain a programmer for a decade if he sports his own goals (e.g. in science). In the new millennium, had it been successfully put into the practice of learning, Murre's OptiLearn might have competed with supermemo.net and supermemo.com in spaced repetition data collection. OptiLearn, occasionally mis-spelled by its authors as OptLearn, has probably fallen victim to a typical problem of academic environments: constant flow of students. Master's Thesis by Viktor de Boer "Optimal learning and the spacing effect" won the KION thesis contest 2002/2003. OptiLearn's goal was to collect learning data to crystallize the predictive power of the Memory Chain Model. In the meantime, Mnemosyne started churning out new open data using Algorithm SM-2, where again, practical needs helped the project survive and thrive. Today, web applications such as Quizlet or Duolingo follow a similar path: employing machine learning to process billions of data records in spaced learning. As their records are not open to the public, what web apps contribute in data may not be fully capitalized on by the research community. SuperMemo World is also partly limited by the need to protect its trade secrets. The worlds of science and business tend to walk separate paths.
Jaap Murre, in the meantime, focused on his prolific research in multiple areas of memory, learning, and even sleep. He has never converted his interest in memory into a popular application.
See: Memory chain model used to explain forgetting
This glossary entry is used to explain "History of spaced repetition" by Piotr Wozniak (June 2018)