Minimum definition of incremental reading
This text is a part of a series of articles about SuperMemo, a pioneer of spaced repetition software since 1987
Why need a definition?
The term "incremental reading" is nearly two decades old, and it slowly percolates into the awareness of users of spaced repetition. To ensure that no half-baked product can claim the title, please demand that the authors of software that claims to "implement incremental reading" comply with the "minimum definition" outline below
Definition
First Steps options
- spaced repetition
- extracts
- cloze deletions
- read points (bookmarks)
- priority queue
- repetition auto-sort and auto-postpone
- extract and cloze hierarchy in the knowledge tree (necessary for semantic review)
- easy imports from the web (at least HTML and images)
- rich formatting WYSIWYG (e.g. HTML)
- propagating images
Vital Options
- mid-interval review with a correction for spacing effect (see: Algorithm SM-17)
- early review tools (e.g. Advance, Add to Outstanding, etc.)
- semantic review tools (esp. search&review, branch review, subset review, neural review, etc.)
- overload tools (e.g. Mercy, Postpone, or similar)
- propagating references
- image download/localization
Other options available in SuperMemo
- A-Factor-based article review algorithm (or similar)
- processing attributes and formatting (e.g. extracts, cloze keywords, highlights, ignored texts, etc.)
- source-linking and hierarchy
- visual learning (image zooming, cropping, compressing)
- wholesale file&folder imports (with folder hierarchies)
- web search tools (e.g. for easy imports from dictionaries and favorite data sites)
- popular site filters (Wikipedia, YouTube, etc.)
- tools for automatic decomposition of data (e.g. article splitting, dismember, decompose, etc.)
- more formats for incremental learning: video, audio, mail, etc. Also: PDF, PowerPoint, and OneNote, although it is hard to demand this as part of the definition, esp. that SuperMemo fails to support these
- progress statistics
Free incremental reading
SuperMemo 16 is freeware and meets the criteria for free incremental reading.
User experience is vital
mj wrote: Incremental reading was born in SuperMemo. I believe that nobody should claim to have implemented incremental reading without using it first in SuperMemo himself. The theoretical description is very different from practical applications. I believe that the text about incremental reading is very short, tools used in incremental reading are much larger, and the practical training for doing it well is even larger. This means that incremental reading is two orders of magnitude bigger than that was is written about it at SuperMemo website. I cannot imagine implementing incremental reading without using it for 2-3 years first!!! It is like designing a new sports car without ever sitting behind the wheel of any car!
Video
See:
Picture
Figure: A typical snapshot from an incremental reading process in SuperMemo. While learning about leptin, the student extracts important portions of the text (in blue), and marks keywords that will be used to form questions that will enhance memory in the long term (in dark orange). The questions are reviewed along a spaced repetition schedule. See this video example for an explanation. The brain picture was taken from here