One of the main differences is in the goal. The goal of Bunpro is to learn, not to memorize. For the sake of this explanation, I’ll just give these two terms a quick description of how I am using them.
To learn - To understand and then be able to apply knowledge in unfamiliar situations.
To memorize - To be able to recite previously seen information, regardless of understanding.
If the sentence presented is always the same (as with most cases in Anki), one is able to memorize the sentence, which is a big tip-off as to what the grammar is going to be. We actually have people mentioning this as a negative thing quite frequently, especially when it comes to ghosts. It’s the ‘I feel like I am just memorizing sentences, not actually understanding why to use certain grammar’ effect. With Anki it is the same. If you just memorize the sentence, yes you will get the question correct more often, but have you actually learned anything? No, you have memorized it.
In Bunpro, you are shown a new sentence at each new SRS level. This takes away the possibility of memorizing the answer, and forces critical analysis of the sentence in order to retrieve the information. This cannot be done unless something is actually learned, due to the things needed to take into consideration about the question. For example, who is talking to who, what is the style of writing, are there any relevant conjugations before/after that will eliminate some possibilities, does the sentence have a certain level of politeness, etc etc. All of these analysis steps become completely irrelevant if you see ‘昨日、図書館で借りた本を------。’ and then think to yourself ‘Oh I remember this sentence, the answer is XYZ’.
This Reddit post (and the accompanying scientific article is a good discussion on the topic. https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/w4pui6/i_think_the_spaced_repetition_community_should_up/
The top commenter actually also brings up another very good point. Longer spacing = better retention, but more wrong answers, so it can be demotivating. This raises the question of what is more important, to feel good about yourself, or to actually learn (not memorize) the content. I am not the person to make that call, that is for each individual to decide.
To test whether the SRS is truly bad for you as an individual on Bunpro, I would recommend changing your review style to ‘reading’ temporarily. If you retain the information/can understand the meaning from sight much more consistently, then it is a sign that you’re probably rushing through the reviews without thinking about why the grammar is being used in a certain sentence in the cloze style.
That is correct. The only thing that we are cautious about here is the difference between memorization and learning. It is one thing to get something right more often. It is something else entirely get something right only because you memorized it.
Anyway I am not an expert on this, I just think that it’s not as simple as just changing it. Especially if there’s a possibility that the results for users ends up being something like a pain-killer (memorization) for the underlying problem (learning).
Disclaimer - This really only applies to grammar I would say. Vocab is a different thing where rote memorization is likely to be much more helpful. We will continue to seriously research this topic on our end and try to find the best solution for everyone.
On the other hand, I’ve reset so many words because I memorized but didn’t learn them through WK, to add to 