Flash Cards Gone Mental

Mental Case is a revolutionary new flash card application designed to integrate into your daily work flow. Like other flash card apps, you can use it to learn a language, memorize trivia, or study for an exam, but that's just the beginning: Mental Case allows you to quickly capture any tidbit of useful information from any application in a mental note. What's more, it automatically generates lessons from your notes, and even tells you when you should study.

“I'm a HUGE flash card user for the very purpose that you seem to have built Mental Case ... I love it. Excellent concept and execution.”

Ethan Schoonover (Kinkless)

This is how it works: You use Mental Case to enter some text, drop in an image, take a screen shot, or even snap a picture with your iSight. Your new mental note is then scheduled to reappear at future dates using an optimized learning algorithm. When you have a few minutes to spare, you watch the scheduled notes in an beautifully presented slide show. Mental Case makes learning a pleasure.

The Science of Mental Case

Mental Case is more than just a Flash Card application — it also incorporates advanced learning features. It takes your mental notes and sends them to you in the form of an automated lesson. You don't manage the lesson yourself — Mental Case manages the lesson for you. (If you don't want to use the lesson, you can turn it off in the preferences by selecting None for the lesson schedule.)

The algorithm that Mental Case uses to schedule notes is based on a technique called spaced repetition. This has been shown scientifically to be a very efficient way to study, giving the most memory recall for the amount of time spent studying. The way it works is that notes are scheduled at longer and longer intervals until the schedule is completed; for example, in the the standard lesson schedule, notes appear in the lesson after 24 hours, and then 3 days after that, and 7 days after that, and so forth.

Uses for Mental Case

The things you can use Mental Case for are as diverse as knowledge itself. Use it to remember day-to-day things like phone numbers, birthdays, and recipes. Study mathematics or history for an exam at school or college. You can even use it for self-development: remind yourself what's important in life (like your family and friends) or motivate yourself to continue a personal project or stick to that diet.

Know-Where: Existence Recall

There is so much information available to us in the information age that it is impossible to remember it all. What distinguishes a knowledgeable person from a less-knowledgeable one? More and more, it is not about what you know, but where you know to find out more. We call this 'know-where', because you know about the existence of something and where to find the details.

Mental Case is very useful for improving your know-where. It can help you remember about the existence of a book, web site, or particular technique so — when you need to draw on that information — you know where to find out more. Knowing what to search for is 99% of the battle. Don't go nowhere, go know-where — Mental Case makes it easy.

We've come up with a list of uses to give you some ideas, but it's far from exhaustive. Anything that you would ever want to remember or be reminded of can be put into Mental Case.

Requires Mac OS X
10.4 or 10.5

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Features

Mental notes

Mental notes are very similar to traditional flash cards. You can add a small amount of text and/or an image to each mental note, and optionally include a prompt or question.

Repetitive learning

Mental notes get scheduled for future revision in a lesson. Mental Case uses an optimized algorithm to ensure that you get maximum memory retention for the time you spend studying.

Sharing and Syncing

You can export (or print) mental notes in order to transfer them to your iPod or iPhone, upload to the web, or share with others.

Organize your notes

You can group your mental notes together in mental cases, which are like folders in the Finder. Drag-and-drop your notes from one case to another, or review an entire case in a slide show.

Quick entry

Mental Case includes quick note entry, which allows you to create new notes at any time using hot keys or a global menu, whether you are working in Mental Case or not.

Capture from screen or iSight

Sometimes the information you want to put in your mental notes is already on your screen, or in a book. Don't bother typing it over, just use the built in screen capture facilities, or take a photo with your iSight.

Themed slide shows

Lessons are presented in themed slide shows with attractive transitions, making learning less of a chore. You can choose the themes and transitions yourself.

Preferences

Mental Case includes an advanced system of preferences for controlling how often notes are scheduled to appear in a lesson, and how long they are displayed in slide shows.

Confused?

If you are still having trouble understanding what Mental Case is all about, and how it works in practice, you can take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, ask a question in our Forums, or send an email and ask us directly.