Haha reading your comment felt like finding someone who speaks my language. I absolutely agree that the context of spaced repetition with incremental learning and reading is key, if you are to apply it.
Studying the psychology of learning, I happened upon the fact this is a real "Learning Loop" with another masters student who explained their problems studying effectively to me.
Basically, when you need to study for something, you often have loads of content. But you want to be able to manageablly learn it - and, in order throughout the learning process to be most effective - do so with spaced repetition/active recall. That requires the incremental reading or context you mention!
I built a way of capturing this reading-flashcards-reading-flashcards mangeable l op into a tool. Instead of just generating flashcards from PDFs and showing them one at a time, it first groups the reading (in this case, for a lecture, by slides covering each topic), and it shows you say the 7 relevant slides for that top, then it moves on to ask you 2-3 flashcard questions for each of those relevant slides (so lets say 18 questions). Crucially, it will keep track of you mistakes and progress on those chunks of flashcards with SRS later and the next day bring up those you forgot. As a learner you can then rotate back into studying via reading, addressing another incremental chunk.
It's so much better than trying to consume a whole lecture or chapter or large concept en masse! By actually contextualising and always feeling like the next bit is do-able, you have enough momentum to study well but also feel progress. This is why I like incorporating spaced repition, but contextually. For other psychology reasons related to study help in exam conditions, it also offers a free recall which tests at the harder end, beyond what most apps do, and does useful things with the results later on.
I do host that learning mode - "Learning Loop Mastery" - on my site, Revision.ai - which can turn lectures into those incremental learning loops via flashcards/reading sections if you want to try it. As of tomorrow it will be widely available (again).
Studying the psychology of learning, I happened upon the fact this is a real "Learning Loop" with another masters student who explained their problems studying effectively to me.
Basically, when you need to study for something, you often have loads of content. But you want to be able to manageablly learn it - and, in order throughout the learning process to be most effective - do so with spaced repetition/active recall. That requires the incremental reading or context you mention!
I built a way of capturing this reading-flashcards-reading-flashcards mangeable l op into a tool. Instead of just generating flashcards from PDFs and showing them one at a time, it first groups the reading (in this case, for a lecture, by slides covering each topic), and it shows you say the 7 relevant slides for that top, then it moves on to ask you 2-3 flashcard questions for each of those relevant slides (so lets say 18 questions). Crucially, it will keep track of you mistakes and progress on those chunks of flashcards with SRS later and the next day bring up those you forgot. As a learner you can then rotate back into studying via reading, addressing another incremental chunk.
It's so much better than trying to consume a whole lecture or chapter or large concept en masse! By actually contextualising and always feeling like the next bit is do-able, you have enough momentum to study well but also feel progress. This is why I like incorporating spaced repition, but contextually. For other psychology reasons related to study help in exam conditions, it also offers a free recall which tests at the harder end, beyond what most apps do, and does useful things with the results later on.
I do host that learning mode - "Learning Loop Mastery" - on my site, Revision.ai - which can turn lectures into those incremental learning loops via flashcards/reading sections if you want to try it. As of tomorrow it will be widely available (again).