I’m over 60, and well aware of the brain changes that naturally occur over the decades of life. Kids are virtual sponges. Then the childhood superpowers go away, and memory changes more gradually in the ensuing decades. But change it does!!!
I’ve read here a lot of discussion about whether or not to support the WK SRS with other memory aids (such as KaniWani, Anki, or Memrise). Has anyone thought about this in relation to the aging brain?
Age is not the only factor that influences memorisation. Every person is different, so I suggest trying your own method and adjust it to your liking. If it works for other people, even from the same age group, origin, sexual orientation, life experiences, education profile, etc., there’s no guarantee that it will work for you.
There are plenty of relatively young people on the forums who struggle with memorization, so don’t think in terms of age, think in terms of you. KaniWani supplements WaniKani by testing for recall rather than recognition, so it’s highly recommended. Additionally, despite the abundant amount of vocabulary you learn WaniKani mainly serves to teach you kanji so you’ll have to supplement with other sources anyways. The Japanese Core decks for Anki or Memrise vocabulary decks will greatly help your reading ability. Also, I’m not a scientist but I don’t think the brain degrades in the same way that the body does as long as you keep it sharp.
Also also, don’t worry about seeing WaniKani items outside of WaniKani. No, you’re not “cheating” the SRS, and whoever spreads that needs to be chucked into the sun.
The SRS system is created to make it easier for any user to retain information in a faster, more efficient manner.
It’s created for anyone who can learn, not for fast learners 
I’m close to 70, and I have been learning Japanese for about a year and a half to keep from getting dementia, which is a serious problem in my family. I have found that it is really helping my memory, and I am also doing RocketLanguages.com (Japanese). I am learning fast and, at six months in, I realized that I was having almost no “senior moments” like I had been before. So learning a new language does help.
I’m younger (41) but have some memory issues because of a medical condition. I’ve found for me that the SRS timing is fine, what I do have to watch is how many items I have queued up at any given time. I have supplemented with KaniWani in the past, and that was helpful, but I found it hard to find enough time to keep up with SRS on both. I do use Bunpro for grammar studies, and JapanesePod101 for listening and additional grammar/vocab reinforcement.
Overall, I find that studying Japanese (and using WK specifically) have been incredibly beneficial to my memory in general, not just in regards to language learning. I also find that even if I get bogged down in reviews, I still need to do some lessons. I make the best progress and my accuracy overall is better when I am learning new things alongside reviewing the ones I’ve already studied.
I’m a big fan of the SRS.
Because I like Japanese, I like kanji.
And the SRS feels like a way to condense a lot of those things into a short amount of time.
There are sites that still do that.
Rosetta Stone, SuperNative, very activity heavy, very practical, but…
こういち: “What are you doing? This is my site, do not veer credit to people outside this forum.”
Most SRS, and kanji learning sites, for me - and they are for me, kanji learning sites and SRS - have traded in kanji and vocab for game fetishism.
It’s where you make a sick system, and then you add a million words on it and people lose their minds.
(I have a problem) SRS good for all.
SRS uses adaptive intervals, so you get automatically the amount of reviews you need. If you are forgetting more you will be hammered with the same stuff more frequently.
I feel that the WK SRS intervals are not optimized for someone specific, but rather so that you can get reviews everyday at the same time, or with a 12h shift.
SRS does help because the more I see a kanji, the better I remember it. After not seeing something for a while, the review again does help to make it stick in my mind.
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