http://lifehacker.com/5147887/color-stud...creativity

"A New York Times piece looks at the most recent study on 'color effects,' which try to determine whether performance is helped, hurt, or unaffected by colors—primarily red and blue, as those two shades have shown up again and again in previous studies. Take it with a grain of salt, but University of British Columbia researchers found that, in cognitive tests of 600 people:

'Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes.'"

Here's the original article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/scienc....html?_r=1

Personally, I think there's too many factors to simplify this and I'm very much against reading too much into it, but I do think that for any individual, they have a set of colour preferences they personally find conducive to different mental states, whatever the reasons (subjective and objective).... what're yours, for Japanese at least? I stick with black text on white background in Anki (if only because I'm used to that for reading, and expect to see it again that way). I might experiment a bit with some new card types I intend to make. I really like this site's colours though, I find them soothing yet stimulating, which is an overarching feeling I go for in 'framing' my computer activities.

Bonus: http://thinksimplenow.com/clarity/train-...lor-again/

As I responded to someone on the Anki group: Why would you want to use this to study with? The idea is to study it so well that you always know it, not just when you see the color red. If you study with 'enhanced recall', then when you don't have that enhanced recall, you'll have problems.

It would actually be a lot smarter to study with decreased recall so that you know you'll always have it.

Not that this is 'enchanced recall' and not an aid to memorization. Just the recall of things you've already memorized.

wccrawford Wrote:If you study with 'enhanced recall', then when you don't have that enhanced recall, you'll have problems.

I don't think the human mind works in such a simple way. You learn something, and immediately create many links with a lot of other things. It's not a one-to-one connection with the particular form in which you've studied it.
Maybe muscles work that way, but not the brain, I think.

I would think that using colours to enhance recall would fall along the same lines as using pictures, etc. Per card memorization aid that helps with long-term SRS memorization. Or how some folks like having background music for study, or doing other little rituals to create a certain ambience, helping their 'flow'. I don't think something like using specific colours would create some kind of sticky state-dependent learning situation, it's too abstract, especially when used alongside other memorization aids and encountered in varying contexts over time. It's certainly something to keep in mind though, as I mentioned with the black text on white background.

What I might do is try using colours I find to be stimulating yet neutral for production-related tasks, and colours that are singularly striking for recognition.

There have been studies to show that even the clothes you wear affect how you recall things. In other words, if you wear dress clothes to school, but need to recall the information wearing casual clothes, you'll have a harder time. You should study in the kind of clothes you'll wear when you need the info.

As for 'being like pictures' on the cards, each concept has a different picture. That creates a link for just that information. If every card is the same color, no extra link is made. It's just the color of the card.

The 'white on black' is good for you, IMHO, nest0r because you are comfortable with it.

http://www.gonorth.org/start/study.htm

"Within a study space you must feel comfortable and safe, stress-free and able to concentrate."

"Academic experts suggest that the best environment in which to study is well-lit without being overly bright, free from social distractions, free from sensory stimulation and interruptions like cellphones, music, television and loud talking."

In other words, your environment, both physical and electronic, should be comfortable and free of distractions. No radio playing, no web browser open to forum.koohii.com, no twitter, no cell phone, comfortable chair, comfortable position, bright light, muted colors.

Edit: Another, aimed more towards kids, but good tips:

http://doarticle.com/Help-Your-Kids-Lear...ent-38515/

"Baroque music helps students to focus and to access their most resourceful learning state."

"Positive signs will remind your child's subconscious mind of his or her potential to learn."

"Breaks are important. Research shows that students remember more of the information learned at "beginnings" and "endings" of study periods."

I don't think the black on white is good for me, per se, so much as I think it's easy on the eyes, and I haven't invested much effort into customizing colors. That this is standard is a nice bonus, so I don't feel too bad about remaining neutral about it. The very act of customizing colors, however, could create slots in the brain to aid memorization in the same way that I found bold and italics in Heisig stories aided me in focusing on keywords and primitives and even placement, other mental state-related aspects aside.

Attentional focus is very important--similarly, in pictures, it's not the picture-as-concept so much as how we associate elements in the pictures with certain concepts per card. I use quite a few abstract pictures, sequences of pictures, and repeated pictures for different concepts. Of course, keeping the # of elements obvious and simple is nice, but one can't customize every picture. Even the colors in the pictures would be useful here. There's at least one study that discusses how color helps modulate the visuospatial and phonological aspects of working memory, and another that discusses how our categorization of color changes how we focus on it.

I don't know about these clothing studies, but I do feel that state-dependent learning exists, and that this should emphasize the idea that one should be aware of what suits them best for memorization both in an overall way and in specific ways, they should develop a certain proactive 'metacognitive' thinking that goes in hand with self-study, and utilize variables that positively affect their learning process in a way that will be robust and keep them from being dependent upon anything in particular.

Edit: Also, let's keep in mind the nature of the SRS, where we have learning and maintenance, we have two inverted environments, in a sense. Hence, my previous iteration about production versus recognition cards. You want different types of consistency and variety on each side of the card depending on what external environment you're trying to simulate. I could go more into this, but it's actually part of my 'next phase' so it's even more convoluted than what I'm currently writing.

wccrawford Wrote:There have been studies to show that even the clothes you wear affect how you recall things. In other words, if you wear dress clothes to school, but need to recall the information wearing casual clothes, you'll have a harder time. You should study in the kind of clothes you'll wear when you need the info.

This is why I always went to my tests back in uni stoned. That's how I had studied for them, and so...

wccrawford Wrote:your environment, both physical and electronic, should be comfortable and free of distractions. No radio playing, no web browser open to forum.koohii.com, no twitter, no cell phone, comfortable chair, comfortable position, bright light, muted colors.

Although I agree with most of this, I have to say that, personally, I get itchy all over my body if I'm ever in a room that is completely silent. Even if it's ambient techno or jazz or whatever - some kind of music that you don't have to pay attention to; i.e., can easily ignore - I have to have some kind of noise going on in the background to be able to relax.

EnjukuBlack Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:your environment, both physical and electronic, should be comfortable and free of distractions. No radio playing, no web browser open to forum.koohii.com, no twitter, no cell phone, comfortable chair, comfortable position, bright light, muted colors.

Although I agree with most of this, I have to say that, personally, I get itchy all over my body if I'm ever in a room that is completely silent. Even if it's ambient techno or jazz or whatever - some kind of music that you don't have to pay attention to; i.e., can easily ignore - I have to have some kind of noise going on in the background to be able to relax.

Each person is different, and I used to require some noise as well. (My father still does.)

Now that I've gotten used to the quiet, I can't stand a noisy environment. It's a constant distraction, even if it's just 'background music'. And let's be honest, even the most unassuming elevator music sometimes catches your attention from time to time.

I can't get any correct answers in Anki without blasting Japanese noise music and wearing neon green sweatpants.

A little more info I just found.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...151800.htm

"The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region."

On the surface, if you read the whole article, they are claiming that non-lonely people have that area more active. And that means better learning.

But actually, being not-lonely is just one way to stimulate that area. In essence, the article is saying that happy people learn better.

wccrawford Wrote:A little more info I just found.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...151800.htm

"The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region."

On the surface, if you read the whole article, they are claiming that non-lonely people have that area more active. And that means better learning.

But actually, being not-lonely is just one way to stimulate that area. In essence, the article is saying that happy people learn better.

Causes and correlations, always tricky.

On the other side: http://schoolofeverything.com/blog/learn...uld-be-fun

At any rate, I've definitely decided to be less lazy and incorporate colour into my SRSing. Most likely I shall use soothing yet stimulating colours for the question sides of production cards, something slightly more engaging than the default white. A kind of sub-ambient glue for the pictures and audio and kana, et cetera. Perhaps I'll highlight primary options in colours I find attractive on the answer side, or I'll place definite no-nos in colours I find ugly. For recognition cards, I'll experiment with different ways to highlight different components I want to focus on in colours of varying levels of striking and engaging resonance. In the real world, this might channel into priming oneself for manifold abstract cues for production versus specific concrete ones for recognition. Perhaps with vocabulary I'll even toy with different colours to represent different meanings or themes.

At the least, the act of organizing these things and changing colours will refresh me. I'll likely also change things up periodically for this reason.

Red improves memory? Blue creativity? It is nice science is catching up with Tantra

I use colors with Chinese. (Mandorin) Each of the four tones gets a color. Because I am color-ordinated I can recall the tones much more efficiently. Other than that I don't think it would help in Japanese. Maybe I could color the reading based on onyomi\kunyomi\and the other one XD.

gyuujuice Wrote:Because I am color-ordinated I can recall the tones much more efficiently.

You also get the bonus of being a master of Simon.

When I was fretting over Japanese, my girlfriend told me she used to write in blue.

Maybe makes it stick out more and is more vivid, thus catching your brain's attention more.

gyuujuice Wrote:Maybe I could color the reading based on onyomi\kunyomi\and the other one XD.

Pointless I think. Once you learn a fair number of readings it becomes pretty obvious just by looking at them what is kunyomi and what is onyomi, even without directly studying them.

I should try the color thing /w Chinese tones though.

Anyone have/can make an Anki plugin that does the tone coloring automagically?

"You also get the bonus of being a master of Simon."
-I am afraid I don't understand what you are talking about.

"Pointless I think. Once you learn a fair number of readings it becomes pretty obvious just by looking at them what is kunyomi and what is onyomi, even without directly studying them.

I should try the color thing /w Chinese tones though."

-I was teasing about the coloring of readings but it really helps with Chinese. It takes away some of the dependency of pinyin. (I am terrible at pinyin so this is a life-saver)

gyuujuice Wrote:I use colors with Chinese. (Mandorin) Each of the four tones gets a color. Because I am color-ordinated I can recall the tones much more efficiently. Other than that I don't think it would help in Japanese. Maybe I could color the reading based on onyomi\kunyomi\and the other one XD.

There should be 5 colors, there's the natural tone as well. The idea is good however, I should probably copy it.

gyuujuice Wrote:"You also get the bonus of being a master of Simon."
-I am afraid I don't understand what you are talking about.

Oh, it's a little color memory game thing:

There needs to be a timeboxing Simon plugin for Anki.

gyuujuice Wrote:"You also get the bonus of being a master of Simon."
-I am afraid I don't understand what you are talking about.

Simon is a game that has 4 colored buttons. You have to remember their order and hit them again. Each round, the list of buttons to hit in order gets longer.

Oh, I remember that game. I haven't played it in a while.

Tobberoth, There doesn't have to be 5 colors because if is a nuetral tone you write it in black. (Which isn't consiodered a color.) I wonder if this would work with Cantonese? Isn't there 9 tones in Cantonese?