How it works
Tell someone a man is a baker and they'll remember it. Tell them his surname is Baker and they'll probably forget it. It's the same word, but the job comes with flour, ovens and early mornings, while the surname is just a label. Psychologists call this the Baker/baker paradox.
Trivia is mostly surnames: names, dates, places, terms. If you remember the story but never the actual fact, your memory isn't bad. The fact just has nothing to hold on to.
Erebus gives each fact something to hold on to, then makes you pull it back out on a schedule.
The daily loop
- 1
Recall
Answer questions about facts from earlier days before you see anything new. Struggling a little is the point.
- 2
Learn
Read a few new facts, each with a scene and memory hooks. Then close your eyes for five seconds and replay it.
- 3
Check
Pull each new fact back out once, straight away.
- 4
Repeat
Facts you recall easily come back less often: after about 1, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days. Facts you miss come back tomorrow.
Memory hooks
Visual association
Tie the detail to an exaggerated, unusual mental image.
Narrative
Turn the detail into a tiny story with a cause and effect.
Sound-alike
Break a name into sounds you already know.
Chunking
Split a long word into meaningful pieces.
Number hook
Anchor dates and numbers to rhymes, sums or times.
Shape
See a country's outline as an everyday object.
Active recall + spaced repetition
Retrieving an answer without hints, at growing intervals, is one of the best-supported ways to make something stick.
Your Progress page tracks which hooks work best for you.
The stories are made up to help you remember. The facts are real. Erebus won't make you a genius. It's for learning something interesting every day and still knowing it tomorrow.
Want to see the stories first? Browse every fact, story and memory hook in the fact library.
Play today