Patent ID: 7708562
Filing Date: 2010-05-04
Classification: G09B,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method for facilitating a learning of items by a user, said method comprising: providing an unmastered pool, a ready pool, a mastered pool, and a delayed pool; specifying a period of time after which any mastered item in the mastered pool is recycled back into the unmastered pool; providing items to be learned by the user in the unmastered pool, said ready pool consisting of items previously transferred from the unmastered pool, said items previously transferred being stored in the ready pool; assigning a weight to each item in the unmastered pool, wherein each item in the unmastered pool has a probability of being randomly selected such that said probability is a function of said weight, wherein said probability is proportional to said weight, and wherein said assigning assigns the weight to each item based on a relative importance of each item and not based on a relative difficulty of learning each item; specifying a function relating an integer N to an integer K, said function being an increasing function of K, said function of K having a value of at least 5 for each value of K not less than 2; selecting K of at least 2; after said specifying the function and after said selecting K, determining N from the increasing function of K, said N at least 5; after said determining N, randomly selecting N items from the unmastered pool; transferring the selected N items to the ready pool; after said transferring the selected N items, a processor of a computer system randomly selecting a current item from the ready pool, said selected current item being an item previously transferred from the unmastered pool to the ready pool; after said randomly selecting the current item and before presenting the current item to the user, adding new items to the unmastered pool; presenting the current item to the user; after said presenting the current item, receiving a response to the current item from the user, said response being a correct response or an incorrect response; after said receiving the response, ascertaining whether a condition is satisfied, said condition being that a correct response to the current item was received from the user and (the current item had not previously been presented to the user or the user had responded correctly to the current item during a last J times that the user responded to the current item such that said J at least 2); if said ascertaining whether the condition is satisfied ascertains that the condition is satisfied: