Failed items repetition order

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#1

I have returned to using WaniKani after ~4.5 months of interruption and have noticed a change. Or I suspect there was a change done since early August 2019. It is about the order or timing when the failed items appear in the review list again during the same session.

Before it worked like this:

  • I fail the item (reading/meaning, whatever), it goes back to review queue
  • Another 10-15 items are being reviewed (so I properly erase the failed item from my short-term memory)
  • Failed item reappears, and I check how well it sits now in my middle-term memory, together with associations, cross-links and whatnot

But now this sequence is greatly shortened. Failed item appears right away again, or after 1-2 another items. So actually, only my short-term memory plays its part and I cannot be sure I properly fixed the area where related info is stored.

With this I only have two questions:

  • The above is just a coincidence of the last couple of weeks or consequence of having too many reviews due? Iā€™ve dropped from 2150 to 1140 recently.
  • Or this was an intentional algorithm change? If so, was there any idea behind that?

Thanks so much to anyone who could clarify :slight_smile:

1 Like
#2

Are you using any scripts ? I suppose the problem can come from Wanikani Reorder Ultimate 2, even if I suppose it is not a problem in it own.

#3

The only scripts I use are those for statistics (level duration, number of reviews/burns daily, this sort of thing). Nothing to alter the original order of studying.

#4

Well, sorry then, I have no clue. :slightly_frowning_face:

#5

Iā€™d never noticed that there was a particularly long gap before failed items reappeared, but Iā€™ll take your word for it.

The only thing I can think is that you might be getting significantly more items wrong with so many reviews to do? In that case, with WaniKaniā€™s system of keeping you to a maximum of 10 incomplete items at a time, your pool would be more populated with incorrect items, and there would be less turnover of new items being added to the pool.

That could result in it being more likely to present you with a previously failed review at any given point.

I donā€™t really know how the algorithm for picking which items to revisit works though, or how much it prioritises bringing in fresh material and so on.

5 Likes
#6

Now that I think of it, your idea is likely to be real. My rate dropped from 85-97% to 54-70% now, so indeed there are more items in ā€œfailedā€ status at each given timepoint.

Then it is kind of a relief - reviews will return back to their usual way once I close my due list :grin:

Thanks a lot!

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#7

I think with vanilla WaniKani the failed item is just placed randomly in the 10 item active review queue. So equal odds I would think, 1 in 10 chance of showing up next. But itā€™s been a while since Iā€™ve looked at the code, so I donā€™t remember exactly how it works.

The only thing Iā€™ve seen force failed items to always appear again right away is using one on one mode from the reorder script.

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#8

Yeah, thatā€™s what I would think, but given Kawazoeā€™s experience I thought perhaps it prioritised revisiting correct items and seeding new items (with some randomness) over revisiting failed items for a bit. Either way Iā€™d imagine that more failed reviews would reduce the average gap.

@Kawazoe - glad to have (hopefully!) helped.

#9

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