What resurfacing cadence and cue type best returns captured ideas for an ADHD mind?

The question

Given that externalize-and-resurface identifies return (not capture) as the load-bearing half, what kind of resurfacing actually beats idea volatility for ADHD-PI: event-based / contextual cues, fixed-interval spaced repetition, relevance-triggered surfacing (return a dormant idea when new material connects to it), or a scheduled weekly review — and in what mix?

Why it matters

This directly drives the design of the sparks resurfacing feature — the single highest-value thing to build after capture. Getting the cadence wrong reproduces the failure mode the system exists to fix: a pile of captured notes never seen again.

What we currently believe

• Event-based cues beat time-based alarms for ADHD prospective memory (idea-volatility-in-adhd).
• Weekly review + spaced repetition are the consensus practitioner cadence, but with little controlled comparison.
• Relevance-triggered resurfacing (surface a spark when new research connects to it) is hypothesized to be the strongest fit for a divergent, associative mind — but is untested here.

Evidence we have

• From 2026-06-07-autoresearch-adhd-pi-workflow-strategies: event-based > time-based cues; weekly review + spaced repetition recommended; AI-resurfacing tools (Mem, RemNote, Saner.AI) exist because "return" is the hard part. (All practitioner-grade; no head-to-head cadence study.)
• From 2026-06-07-academic-research-adhd-pi-strengths-and-externalized-cognition: reminders help most under high load and must carry both cue and action (target-action), not cue-only (Peper & Ball 2022); external aids are the most effective PM intervention (g ≈ .805, Jones et al. 2021) — but this evidence is largely general/aging, not ADHD-specific (the ADHD reminder-RCT gap remains the core of this question). See cognitive-offloading.

Evidence we need

• Controlled or comparative evidence on resurfacing cadence/cue type for adult ADHD specifically (the peer-reviewed /academic-research pass).
• Whether relevance-triggered surfacing outperforms fixed schedules for associative thinkers.

How to resolve

• Run the academic pass on prospective-memory aids and spaced/contextual reminding in ADHD.
• Prototype resurfacing variants in the sparks system and observe which sparks actually get pulled back on.

Related

• externalize-and-resurface
• working-memory-deficit-to-idea-loss