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Sep. 4th, 2013 10:50 pmSo I've been thinking a lot lately about positive reinforcement training methods, and in particular why duolinguo works for me but 750words doesn't. Generally speaking, they are the same concept: do a thing, and if you do it every day it tracks your days-in-a-row streak, but one works and the other doesn't.
I think there are two main things.
One: amount of minimum required effort. 750 words feels like a lot, most of the time. Even if I don't try to do anything meaningful, it's rather a slog. Duolinguo just requires something -- could be a lesson, could just be a refresh of known content -- and it goes quickly.
Two: punishment for missing a day. On 750words, the primary "currency" is your highest streak, and missing a day -- whether intentional, accidental, due to power outage, being sick, whatever -- resets the current streak to zero. This means that if I end up missing a day, I am not motivated to return immediately. Plus, if I got a streak of any size and then fell off, seeing the highest-streak stats is like a slap. Duolinguo does track daily streaks, but you have skill points as the primary reward/currency, and these might decay over significant time but on a short term basis it can only be increased, not decreased. It also does keep track of daily, weekly, and monthly point gain progress, so you can see overall trends.
I think there are two main things.
One: amount of minimum required effort. 750 words feels like a lot, most of the time. Even if I don't try to do anything meaningful, it's rather a slog. Duolinguo just requires something -- could be a lesson, could just be a refresh of known content -- and it goes quickly.
Two: punishment for missing a day. On 750words, the primary "currency" is your highest streak, and missing a day -- whether intentional, accidental, due to power outage, being sick, whatever -- resets the current streak to zero. This means that if I end up missing a day, I am not motivated to return immediately. Plus, if I got a streak of any size and then fell off, seeing the highest-streak stats is like a slap. Duolinguo does track daily streaks, but you have skill points as the primary reward/currency, and these might decay over significant time but on a short term basis it can only be increased, not decreased. It also does keep track of daily, weekly, and monthly point gain progress, so you can see overall trends.