Are picture flash cards more or less helpful?

[Feba]

I've read plenty of times that learning by translation is a bad idea, for numerous reasons. What I'm wondering is, because flash cards rely on translation into something, would it be better to use pictures where possible?

[Yudan Taiteki]

I think that would make little difference. Minimizing the use of flash cards, and dealing with isolated words as little as possible, are better solutions.

To me, flash cards are almost always a bad idea. If you are using flash cards, that means you're forgetting material because you're not using it. There's only so much information you can cram into your brain that you don't use. I feel the same way about SRS -- people always seem to look for ways to avoid the actual language as much as possible.

[somenube]

Though flashing with images saves you a step in the process. (thing-English-Japanese to thing-Japanese)
It takes a lot more effort and probably not worth it.