After adding a Braille card pack to Quisition, I started investigating Morse Code and found some interesting information about two different approaches to learning Morse Code that have got me thinking about more general application to learning.
Firstly, some background information on timing. The Paris Standard timing has a dash three times longer than a dot with the gap between atoms equal to a dot, the gap between letters equal to a dash (=3 dots) and the gap between words equal to 7 dots.
Incidentally, with an inter-word gap, this makes PARIS = 50 dots exactly. Some stuff I've read suggested this is why it's called the PARIS standard but the fact the code was agreed upon at a meeting in Paris might have also been part of it.
Now, coming to learning Morse Code, both the methods I've read about agree on one very important thing: they never lengthen the intra-letter gap to make it easier to learn. Doing so apparently gives the learner too much time to think about the letter as an individual sequences of dots and dashes whereas they need to learn the letter a single unit. Remembering the components with the aid of mnemonics (which I otherwise find useful in other domains) actually prevents the learner from achieving fluency.
But after this, the two methods differ. The Farnsworth method starts with very long gaps between letters and slowly reduces them until full speed is achieved.
The Koch method uses full speed gaps between letters from the outset. However, the learner begins with just two letters and new letters are slowly added.
The stuff I've read suggests the Koch method is more effective at getting people to full speed but that either method is still far superior to trying to learn by slowing down individual letters.
Of course, none of this is from my own experience. Perhaps some readers with CW experience might want to comment.