How much time do you spend trying to remember when you don't instantly remember a given card? Is it worth it?

Recently I've been wondering if it is worth it to "try to remember" a given card before giving up, or if I should just give up after 5 seconds or so. I used to think that "making an effort" was important to improve my memory, but I've realized that I don't have any data to support that belief.

Imagine the following:

SCENARIO A
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Three persons: A(Ally), B(Beck) and C(Celia) studying a given set of cards. Lets say 100 cards to be studied in the first day, and then do repetitions on ANKI or a similar SRS during the following days.

1. STUDYING
All three will study the same amount time on the first day. Lets say 4 hours.

2.REPETITIONS
Ally will be instructed to try to remember a card for 60 seconds before she gives up on it.
Beck will be instructed to try to remember a card for up to 15 seconds before giving up.
Celia will be given only 5 seconds for each card.

3. QUESTIONS
Which one will have the highest retention rate?
Will the time spent "trying to remember" make any difference? If so, how much?
Who has the highest retention rate after 1 day? 2 Days? 1 week? 1 month?


SCENARIO B
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Imagine the same situation, but this time all three will have a set amount of time to do their reviews. Let us say 30 minutes per day. That means all three will study during that time and no more, but if they finish early they'll keep on studying in cram mode until the 30 minutes are up.

Which one will have the highest retention rate?
Will the time spent "trying to remember" make any difference? If so, how much?
Who has the highest retention rate after 1 day? 2 Days? 1 week? 1 month?


PURPOSE

What I am wondering is this: which method is more efficient? And how does that affect one's memory in time. Perhaps doing more reps is more efficient in the short term but not as efficient in the long term, or maybe its the other way around. Or maybe both methods are more or less the same.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any data? Do you know of any studies on this particular subject?

I think it's pretty obvious that if you are willing to spend more time thinking of an answer, that your retention will improve (assuming the same number of repetitions as someone else). But, this is at the cost of review efficiency.

These people would have similar retentions, and would be spending roughly the same amount of time on reviewing.

Person 1: 10s/answer, very often card reviews.
Person 2: 20s/answer, less often card reviews

In my opinion, Person 2's reviewing will be more psychologically draining. I average 10s/review. I find longer answer times increase stress, so I would rather review more often and more quickly.

So in other words, find whatever answer time feels best to you. The card's ease will adjust to suit your answer time.

Yeah, I've been wondering how best to go about new vocab that I'm having trouble with. I think sometimes the facts your having trouble with are worth some extra time. But that extra time doesn't need to come in our main review session.

Do keep in mind we have filtered decks in Anki 2 now. So you can go through your cards fast without losing your tempo, then afterwards filter out the cards you had the most trouble with and cram those a bit slower after your main session is done. I don't tend to do this much, but it is an option to consider.

If I remember a card at all, I mark it as correct. But generally after about 20 seconds of trying to remember, I will flip it. Usually it's either gonna happen or it's not, and there are cases where it's on the tip of your tongue, in which case I would say limiting yourself to a time limit would just make you anxious and maybe cause you to not remember. Just give as much time as you want, and as long as you eventually remember, that is all that matters.

For me 20 seconds to recall the meaning of a word is far too much. If I don't remember the word after 5-8 seconds, I fail the card. When watching tv or talking to someone, you don't have that kind of time to stop and think about the meaning of a word, you need to remember quickly.

I don't think I have more than a few cards where it takes me longer than 10s to remember. Usually I read the card, or in the case of kanji, I look at the keyword and I instantly know the answer (some times I know the answer as soon as I see the word I've bolded and don't need to read the sentence). In the case of some more difficult cards, say some obscure idiom I found and thought was cool at the time, I might have to read the example I chose and then think about it for 20-30s but it's so rare in my decks that one or two here or there aren't a huge deal for me if I have to think about them for a long time because the majority of the cards will go quickly.

In my opinion I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you are really taking a long time to get through your reviews.