Overview

The pace of new words varies per student based on a variety of factors. This article will help you understand when students receive a new word during training and what factors affect the pace of new words. 

Membean's Adaptive Reinforcement Engine

Our Adaptive Reinforcement Engine continuously analyzes every word for each student and computes a memory score based on factors within the student's training. This ensures that students are learning at the level and pace appropriate to their needs. A word that falls below a “forgetting” threshold score is a candidate for reinforcement and is added to the reinforcement queue. During each training session, words in the reinforcement queue are shown first. Once this queue is empty, the student will receive a new word. Throughout training, more words may be added to the reinforcement queue. This is because as a student trains some words may have degraded since the start of the training session. 

Training Factors that Affect New Words

The pace of new words is impacted by the following aspects of training: 

• The total time spent training. More time spent training will increase the number of new words. 
• The length of training sessions. Longer training sessions will increase the number of new words. However, we do not recommend lengthy sessions. Students should train for no more than 25 minutes in one sitting.
• The gap between training sessions. Shorter gaps between sessions, such as every other day, will increase the number of new words. When students have many days between sessions, they spend more time reviewing words to combat forgetfulness. 
• The number of questions answered in the session. The more questions that students answer per session, the more new words they will see (as long as that increased pace is not significantly detrimental to their accuracy).  
• The student's accuracy. The higher a student's accuracy, the faster the pace of new words. 
• The student needs incentive. If a student sees 25-30 successive review questions without seeing any new words, a new word is introduced to keep them motivated. 

Training Settings That Affect New Words

If a student has Strong Memory Mode or Extra Help enabled, then they will see fewer new words. These settings tell the trainer to prioritize reinforcing words currently on the student's list. They will still see some new words, but they have to meet a higher threshold of word stability before they do.

If a student has Stop New Words enabled, then they will not see any new words. They will see a Stable Memory message after they have sufficiently reinforced all their current words. You will need to resume words in order for them to begin receiving new ones.