I don’t think spaced repetition runs into the failure mode of #2 if you do it competently. Good spaced repetition prompts you to think about the concepts on a spaced, expanding basis, not to recite the magic words on the back of the card. When I study a card, I’m trying to train urge to understand concept in prompt → concepts on back of card, not words in prompt → words on back of card.
For example, when I learned French with Anki, I translated entire sentences English-to-French (and vice versa). I learned vocab words by just finding sentences where I already knew how to say everything except the new word. By learning sentences containing the word for e.g. “swamp”, I learned how to say “swamp” in normal, fluent conversation, without having to remember the exact sentence I used for Anki (as #2′s model might suggest).
I don’t see any real difference in quality between normal study and Anki study, if you make your cards well.
I don’t think spaced repetition runs into the failure mode of #2 if you do it competently. Good spaced repetition prompts you to think about the concepts on a spaced, expanding basis, not to recite the magic words on the back of the card. When I study a card, I’m trying to train urge to understand concept in prompt → concepts on back of card, not words in prompt → words on back of card.
For example, when I learned French with Anki, I translated entire sentences English-to-French (and vice versa). I learned vocab words by just finding sentences where I already knew how to say everything except the new word. By learning sentences containing the word for e.g. “swamp”, I learned how to say “swamp” in normal, fluent conversation, without having to remember the exact sentence I used for Anki (as #2′s model might suggest).
I don’t see any real difference in quality between normal study and Anki study, if you make your cards well.