I am still pretty new to the whole SRS thing, yet I started noticing one interesting quirk about how (my) memory works around items I fail during previous review.
So, obviously when I fail an item, I carefully re-read mnemonics and definition and try to reconnect them with each other. But when I encounter the item next time, and synapses fire, first thing that surfaces in my memory is the feeling that I’ve failed this item the last time. And nothing else. So I sit and look at the kanji thinking “well, I’ve certainly failed it the last time. And I remember how bad I felt about missing it the last time, that’s all I remember”.
Actually, most of the times it’s not really the only thing I remember, and meditating for a minute, trying to bring other associations with this item, helps. But what I feel inside is this brick wall of pure emotion of disappointment I associate with this word/kanji, and I mentally have to break it down in my head to get to the other information.
It sounds pretty bizarre but I experience that a lot! Don’t really seek any help with this, I understand that I just need to mentally punish myself less for errors and focus on learning rather than cursing at my memory when I miss something. I just wanted to know if any of you encountered something similar? Or maybe you have other strange unusual brain patterns that make your learning harder?
I sometimes see kanji or vocabulary that I instinctively think “oh, it’s this one again”, in the sense of I remember bumping into it several times and that it’s trickier or that I remember getting stuck on it and getting it wrong often.
But, I don’t really treat that as a negative or get too disheartened by it. I actually think of it as a positive because my brain is thinking “what was this again” or “I should know this one” instead of “what on earth is this, I don’t recall ever seeing it”. So it kind of proves to me that I have in a way remembered at least something and that the connections to it are almost complete.
Similarly, if I do recall it correctly or get it wrong and see the answer, I think “oh yeah, that’s right, that’s what it was” rather then thinking “nope, don’t remember this at all” and need to study something from scratch.
I think when working with SRS or flashcards you need to have a certain degree of stubbornness and just keep seeing/doing things over and over again until they begin to stick.
Not any help, but for what is is worth, very similar to what I sometimes experience as well. I know I am supposed to know it. I know that I have gotten wrong the last few times. I recall the answers that were wrong. The correct answer still eludes me.
Well, I’ve stopped doing reviews once I’ve reached level 60, but during my reading I often find myself in a situation where I see a word and I remember having looked it up on several occasions before and even rememer remembering having looked it up before… But not what it means
I think it would eventually stick once I encounter it enough times…
I don’t have anything quite like that, but I definitely hit brick walls sometimes.
In my case, I hit kanji or vocab that I know I know. I recognize them, I know I could recall the meaning… but it’s not immediately coming to me, and sitting there identifying the individual radicals and calling them out by name and using that to remember the mnemonic is efforrrtttttt.
My brain grinds to a halt once I reach a tough one like that, and rather than going “ok, I will take the literally 5-10 seconds and break this down and remember it and then proceed”, my brain will instead dance off into lala land get lost for like 5 minutes… just staring at the screen, a million miles away, daydreaming about my fictional characters… and then eventually I zone back in, put in the 5-10 seconds of thinking time, take a guess (and often pass it), and then move on until I hit the next such item
Something about hitting those kanji that have slightly more friction to them really makes my brain dig its heels in. I guess because it forces me out of a flow state, or something. It’s necessary to tackle them, but gahhh! They are painful
