Memory Curve Practice: Chunky Knows When You're About to Forget
English you've just learned is quietly slipping away every day. This update hands the question of what to review, and when, to Chunky: every chunk you save gets its next review date from how well you know it, and the ones you're about to forget move to the top.
Why you forget what you saved
You spot a useful line, tap save, and a few days later it's gone when you need it. That isn't a bad memory — it's how memory works. In 1885 the psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus tested himself and found that newly learned material drops off fastest in the first day, then levels out. A research team re-ran his method in 2015 and got almost exactly the same curve.
The good news is that the curve can be flattened. Review something just as it's fading and it holds for longer; each review lets the next gap stretch a little further. Spreading reviews across days beats cramming the same material in one sitting — one of the most often replicated findings in memory research.
The hard part is that you can't tell which line is about to slip. So now Chunky keeps track for you.
How Chunky schedules your reviews
- 1Sorted by how well you know them: your saved chunks fall into three groups — Mastered, Learning, and Fading — and a bar at the top of the Saved tab shows how many are in each.
- 2Fading chunks go to the top: Chunky tells you how many are slipping and picks the few to rescue today — usually about a minute's work.
- 3Right moves up, wrong comes back tomorrow: every chunk has its own next review date. Answer correctly and the gap grows a step; miss it and it returns tomorrow.
After each review, you see when they'll be back
When a session ends, Chunky shows how many chunks you rescued, your accuracy, the XP you earned, and when each chunk will come back: the solid ones in 7 or 15 days, the one you just missed tomorrow. No calendar, nothing to remember — open the app and practise what Chunky has lined up.
Why whole chunks rather than single words? Because phrases stored in one piece are the ones you can actually pull out mid-conversation. More on that idea in What are chunks?.
How to start
- 1Update ChunksEnglish to the latest version.
- 2Save chunks you like while you learn.
- 3Open the Saved tab and tap Start review on the fading-chunks card.
FAQ
Where do I find memory curve practice?
Update ChunksEnglish to the latest version and open the Saved tab. A card at the top shows how many chunks are fading; tap Start review to begin.
What happens if I get one wrong?
It drops back to the tomorrow step and appears again the next day. Nothing is taken away — chunks you don't know yet simply come round more often until they stick.
How long does it take each day?
Not long. Chunky picks the few chunks most in need of rescue each day, and that usually takes about a minute.
How are the review intervals set?
Each chunk has its own schedule: tomorrow, then 2, 4, 7, 15 and 30 days. A correct answer moves it up a step so it returns later; reaching the 30-day step counts as mastered.
References
- 1.Ebbinghaus, H. (1885/1913). Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Teachers College, Columbia University.
- 2.Murre, J. M. J., & Dros, J. (2015). Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve. PLOS ONE, 10(7), e0120644.
- 3.Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380.
Update the app and let Chunky remember for you
Memory curve practice is live — just update to the latest version.