People sometimes seem surprised when they hear how much cognitive science goes into the Brainscape study method. "Isn't it just flashcards?", most people say?
Well you would be shocked at the thousands of micro-interactions that our Product team has built to ensure that every moment of the Brainscape user experience is *optimized* for maximum memory retention.
Here are some of the top learning sciences principles we strive to apply at Brainscape every day:
*Active Recall* -- Mentally retrieving the answer "from scratch" (rather than just recognizing it on a list of multiple choices);
*Metacognition* -- "Thinking about your thinking", or in this case, rating your confidence in how well you knew each flashcard (on a 1-5 scale); and
*Spaced Repetition* -- Using your confidence rating to determine how soon to repeat the flashcard, with harder concepts appearing more frequently until you've upped your confidence.
Minimizing *Cognitive Load* -- Using scaffolding to ensure that no *new* flashcards will be introduced as long as there are still 5-7+ "low-confidence" cards that have not yet been upgraded;
Minimizing *Hyperbolic Discounting* -- Continually reminding users of the value of their future goals, by implementing short-, medium-, and long-term rewards;
*Variable Rewards* -- Withholding key stats (such as "mastery %" and "estimated time left") until periodic Checkpoints, thereby constantly surprising the user and motivating their continued studying in order to relieve their curiosity;
*Interleaving Study* -- Delighting the user with a mix of cards from *different* subjects (provided that they've configured their Smart Study preferences), helping to both improve attention AND make it easier to initiate a short study session by tapping a single Study button;
*Generative Processing* (aka *Elaborative Interrogation*) -- Engaging deeper thinking in the process of making flashcards yourself (for users who do choose to make their own);
*Social Motivation Theory* -- Introducing gentle accountability through class leaderboards and collaborative flashcard creation tools; and finally
Minimizing the *What the Hell Effect* (yes that's the scientific name for it) -- Preventing users from "falling off the wagon" when they break a long study streak (by letting them earn the right to "restore" the streak up to 2x/month).
Stay tuned for even more learning sciences principles being woven into the Brainscape study experience as we continue to improve our product ecosystem.
Thanks to the work of all the great cognitive science researchers out there, whose tireless research into retrieval practice, motivation, and good study habits continually inspires Brainscape in our mission to optimize the learning process.