I’m currently trying to improve the German translation.
What does “retrievability” and “retention” mean? Are they actually the same thing (and should be translated by the same word)? Or do they represent clearly different concepts (and should therefore be translated by two different words)?
“retention” is used in deck-options.ftl (FSRS configuration) and statistics.ftl (though I did still not actually find in the the application itself)
“retrievability” in deck-options (sort order), card-stats.ftl und statistics.ftl
Could you give me a clear explication for both terms?
I think @Expertium is best suited to answer this. I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge.
Retention is your ability to recall. 90 out of 100 correct reviews on the first time denotes a true retention of 90%. So I think it would translate to something like “Abruffähigkeit” (Please note I am not German).
Retrievability is your probability of recalling a single card. It is a part of the Retrievability-Stability-Difficulty system. So it is a part of a mathematical function. “Abrufwahrscheinlichkeit” would probably be an appropriate translation.
I have answered the best I can and I stand corrected if there is an error I made.
They are definitely not the same – and they are commonly confused terms, so please translate them differently from each other, and consistent with each use! For me it helps to remember that retrievability is a property of the card, retention is a property of the person.
Retrievability is one of the core values of FSRS, so it’s best to keep the translation as close as possible to the precise definition. But basically – it’s the chance that a piece of information can be “retrieved” from your memory. “Memorability” might be another safe translation.
The probability that the person can successfully recall a particular piece of information at a given moment. It depends on the time elapsed since the last review and the memory stability (S).
Retention is used with different adjectives in different places, but it’s generally focused on how many cards you will remember when they are due and how many you did remember when you studied them. This is a good article about some of the various meanings when it is used.
They should be translated using different words. Retrievability is calculated by FSRS, it’s the predicted probability of recall. Retention can refer to a few things (as Danika Dakika pointed out), but they all share a common property - “retention” refers to a group of cards rather than just one card.
Recall Abiility seems wrong. Retention isn’t about potential. Retreivability is. But I don’t speak German, so maybe I’m wrong. In some contexts, like desired retention, desired recall ability does give you the same sense.
OP, who I assume is a native or high-fluency speaker of German, was not asking for many suggestions about what German word to use. They asked for clearer definition on how the words are used and distinguished in English.
Let’s re-center this thread on the question asked and hold off on any more German suggestions unless they indicate that is helpful to them.
Thanks. Your explications helped me a lot. Especially that retrievability is a “property of a single card” and a “probability”, but retention a “property of a group of cards” and a sort of “rate”. I’ll try to find an appropriate translation, reflecting these remarks, and translate both terms differently and consistently.
Thanks a lot to you all!
Some remarks about the texts in Anki that contain “Retention” or “Retrievability”:
Retention
We have one string statistics-true-retention-title which is “True Retention”. One could argue, if there is a true retention, is there also a false retention, or are all other retention values false? Maybe “Actual Retention” might be a clearer alternative?
In deck-config-compute-optimal-retention-tooltip3 we have the phrase “You may wish to choose a higher desired retention, if you’re willing to trade more study time for a greater recall rate.” This seems a bit tautological given that “recall rate” IS the retention. Maybe use a shorter phrase like “You may wish to choose a higher desired retention, if in return you’re willing to study more time.”?
Retrievability
It seems that “retrievability” is used quite consistently across the translation files. A minor inconsistency is maybe statistics-card-retrievability-title which used “Card Retrievability” instead of simply “Retrievability”, and just as in the same translation file we also have “Card Easy”, “Card Difficulty” … following the same pattern with a “Card …” prefix. But we have on the other hand “Review Intervals”, “Reviews” … without “Card” in the string. Maybe it would be more consistent to eliminate these "Card " prefixes to follow always the same pattern.
