Ok so I've been doing dual n-back on and off for a few years and at some point the app-hopping became its own hobby, which is obviously just procrastination with extra steps. Anyway I finally sat down and sorted my notes, so heres the rundown split by platform since thats what everyone actually asks in the weekly threads. Two things up front: I'm rating these as training tools. Whether n-back transfers to anything is a different fight, go have it in the other thread. Disclosure: one of the apps below is mine. I've flagged it clearly. Downvote me into the ground if thats not cool, but I figured hiding it would be worse.

ANDROID Winner: nback: Dual N-Back Trainer. Free, offline, no account, no ads, adapts on real accuracy instead of a points blob. Stats are still basic, userbase is tiny.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=leotrax3d.nback

Runner up: Dual N-Back Ultimate~4.7 over ~950 review

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lance.dualn_back

WEB Winner: dualnback.com .adapts in micro-increments instead of 3-up/1-down. If you wall at N=4 and quit for three weeks, this fixes it. Subscription though. Stats nerds: dual-n-back.io .proper tracking + export. Old reliable: BrainScale.freemium, ancient UI, still works.

iOS No clear winner, sorry. Dual N-Back (Jens Grud). free, solid core, has export. Heads up: the daily average chart looks like an EMA, not a real mean. Dual N-Back: Brain Training .more polished, pre-recorded letter audio instead of TTS (bigger deal than it sounds).

Whats actually mattered for my consistency: a sane adaptive rule, real audio over TTS, honest graphs, data export, and being on the device I actually carry. Leaderboards and streaks did nothing for me.

ok so my doubts are how many memory palaces does one need as in lets say i read books so for every book do i need to have a special palace . how much and when can i reuse a palace

i was researching and came up with a solution and that is first to create a temporary memory palace and after reading books or whatever put the information in temporary palace and after that put it in a permanent one as in categorizing it for example palace for philosophy section, biology ,history etc.

so like how u guys use this technique to learn information for lifelong

Any tips that to improve my memory power??

Like how can I keep for longer period of time??

Ever wonder why some things stick in your memory instantly while others fade right away? Turns out, our brains are literally wired to forget most information to save energy.

If you actually want to learn something new without burning out, active recall and spacing your study sessions out by a few days completely changes the game. Instead of rereading notes over and over (which mostly just gives a false sense of confidence), try testing yourself or explaining the concept out loud in plain English.

It takes a little more mental effort upfront, but it cuts down your overall study time massively. What’s your go-to trick for learning hard topics?

I just put together my keynote speech and I’m trying to memorize it. The total Speech is about 20 minutes long. Does anyone have any tips?

I need a book or website that can tell me exactly which chemicals and chemical smells affect the brain, such as which ones benefit short-term memory, which ones negatively impact it, and which ones bring back memories from years ago.

Which smells or chemicals, when inhaled, cause excitation in neurotransmitters?

The exact ones I need:

I want to know more about this, and that's why I'm looking for a book or website where I can learn everything that's been studied to date.

A book that explains in detail emotions and memory, and which neurotransmitters are involved in them.

Hello all. First post here, so please go easy on me. :)

To some people, remembering things across different parts of life is a skill they've just figured out.
To others, like me, it's a constant struggle. I would take a photo of something at the shop, leave myself a voice memo while walking or even type a note mid-conversation, and very soon, completely forget any of it exists.

I'm doing some informal research into how people actually capture stuff they want to remember later (notes, photos, voice memos to themselves) and whether it gets acted on or quietly disappears.

The whole thing will take 3 minutes at most.

Google Forms and no email is required:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXC30FCuDY-N4wHMMVUCI3VNPfO4cK4zaD3q1EXSVWd8Dg2g/viewform

Happy to share the aggregate results back here once I've got enough responses.

Thank you!

I know russian, armenian and english at the moment. I used to know greek and german, studied a bit of gaelic and italian, i'm also learning ukrainian. Thing is i forgot german, greek, gaelic and italian and now im scared to learn or relearn languages coz i fear i will forget them all over again, how do you deal with language retention?

Hi,

I’m in my early 30s and I have an exam coming in less than a month, with about 12 modules to study and know.

I just realized that I‘m bad at taking notes and study in general. probably the reason I wasn’t that good at school when I was younger.

For example, I have to read PDF with about 50 pages/slides each, or more. I always took notes (if we can call it like that) by summarizing or rewriting what’s in the book/pdf/lecture in a shorter manner. But now I know that this method is bad since it doesn’t make me learn the content.

I tried reading, then closing the document and try to write in my own words, but I’m just bad at memorizing this way.

One thing that bug me is that I never know what’s important. For example, I have to study marine ecosystems, from plankton, to necton. Then there is a list of key species and I don’t know if it’s just for general knowledge and I should only know what plankton is and the concepts, or if I should know about those 25 species mentioned.

So, I just write down everything in my notebook.

And now, the exam is coming soon and I barely remember my first few modules… I wanted to rewrite my notes in a better way, but it may be a waste of time for now.

I really don’t know how to study, take notes, and just memorize things. I should have done active recall when I was learning the content as I was reading it. Now, I have to do everything at once.

I’m trying apps to create flashcards, quizzes, summaries, etc.

Sorry if I just seem stupid to not know basic things at my age.

I appreciate your help and support.

literally so clueless when a new material is introduced and some ppl would be like "oh yea this material is related to this old material because abcd" and im like ???? how did you make that connection and remember it?????

Howdy all,

Tl;dr - medicine and epilepsy have ruined my memory to the point I don't feel confident learning anything new in depth. Do you have advice or strategies that might help me retain new info or reconnect buried memories.

I am not a regular poster on reddit so apologies if there is already a thread like this or if this isn't the right spot.

I have been diagnosed with epilepsy for ~15 years. I was on Topamax but had to change because the brainfog was causing me to fail college courses. I have been on Keppra for 10ish years. Until recently I was having seizures about every 3 months. We've added more meds to my regimen and it seems to be working.

I know I have forgotten a lot of things due to the above. I also feel like my retention is spotty. Keppra can cause memory issues but it is the only seizure medicine that has worked with the least side effects.

If someone starts telling a story from my past, and they give me enough detail, that memory will sometimes resurface. I feel like my memory is an expanding nebula and that without someone else's input, I have a torn butterfly net.

I want to study computer and data science but don't have a background or strong foundation. I haven't started because feel like it would be a waste of time.

Do you think trying to develop a system like the memory palace or something else would help. I'm concerned another seizure will tear that all down.

I'm not in a bad place but I know I could be in a better one. Any advise or ideas are appreciated.

Question

Been working on a small memory training tool and wanted to share it here since this sub is exactly the audience it's for.

It's called Memory Grid — you're shown a pattern highlighted on a grid for a few seconds, then have to recreate it from memory once it disappears. Building a streak — one wrong tile and the run ends. It basically tests and trains visual working memory and spatial recall.

A few things I focused on:

• No signup, no ads interrupting rounds — just open and play
• Quick sessions (most rounds are 10-20 seconds), so easy to do a few reps during a break
• Streak-based scoring so you can track improvement over time

Curious if this sub finds it useful as a quick daily drill, and open to feedback on the difficulty curve or features that would make it more useful for deliberate practice.

Drop your best streak in the comments — curious what this crowd can hit. I'll go first once I get a good run in.

Link: https://playdash.gg/play/memory-grid

I’ve been really struggling to find a conclusion to this debate of which active recall method would be most effective. I’m interested in applying to medicine for uni, and I want to feel more confident in my study method before starting. I have had a good amount of experience with both methods for active recall and my experiences with each make it really difficult to pinpoint a winner.

Generally, anki flash cards are considered the most effective form of active recall due to its spaced repetition incorporated into it, plus the convience of being on your phone means you can squeeze out more time doing it. And for blurting, I’ve gathered the consensus that it’s more of an occasional check up on the content and not used as a main method for recall.

The thing that I found in my personal experience though was that with flash cards, even after doing them for months (for my alevel biology and chemistry) I still didn’t really feel like I had secured the info - I would slip up on random parts of the info to recall, sometimes not really understand what a card means, and it would often feel very “cue based” where I would be unable/struggle to recall the info if the prompt was written differently. And for blurting, one thing that I distinctly remember unlike the flash cards was the feeling of struggle - I would often literally feel my head hurt after a day of studying and even dream the stuff I studied. And even now I still remember the topics (roughly though) that I blurted all the way back when I did it a year ago. Although I did only do blurting for around a month on several bio topics before stopping to try out anki flashcards, so it may be that I just remember the occasion I blurted. But I do wonder if blurting could be a more effective tool than flash cards because of that struggle to retreive info.

I get that flash cards also require a struggle to retrieve info, but it’s done in micro doses so it doesn’t yield the same effect. Plus blurting helped me see a whole topic at a time and how it connects together, which gave that “solidified” feeling.

But I don’t know. I would like to hear other people’s experiences with active recall methods. And I’d love to hear anyone explain the science behind these methods. 😙

How do I make things that I’ve studied stick and how do I improve my memory and focus? And improve my vocabulary.

How do I make things that I’ve studied stick and how do I improve my memory and focus? And improve my vocabulary.

Some one told me a long time ago, that multiple revisions is the only way to remember ca, like get monthly magazine or something and then just go through it as many times as possible.

Is that the only way? And also how many cycle of revisions one should aim? I am talking about mugging up facts part.

So Yk I have exams coming up every 3 months and I wasn't the brightest in 1-8th Grade Now I have ordinary Level exams in 2 years🇱🇰. All of em say that that is a lot of time and it is good If I study consistently from now on.But I always think they are different from me bcz they have enough time and I

Was doing useless shit for 8 years straight 😔

My biggest weakness is forgetting while studying, They say to use flashcards spaced repetition all that But If I used repetition on old topics while piling up new lessons it will def cram.

And I cannot Stick to a plan.I can Study everyday 2-3 hours daily.Since I started to lock in last 6 months I did not stick to the rhythm yet Some say studying consistently will make your memory good I need to figure that out soon if it's true or not but I see those "writing down what you study" "Spaced repetition"

"Flashcards" seems a lot to me If you know a solution to ease my doubt or stress out plz help me ♥️

Hey llms they say that they don't remember stuff but. I have had several occurrences where it recalls things that I've talked to it about before. I totally think they are remembering stuff