Interruption of a task greatly improves its chances of being remembered. Source: The Psychology Book
Do "improves its chances" and "increase its chances" share the same meaning? Are they interchangeable? If not, what is the difference or nuance between them?
Ngram shows that both are in active use. "Improves chances" sounds a bit more poetic than "increase chances" to me. I am not sure whether this feeling is on the right track.
The difference lies in the connotation.
Increasing the chance is always referring to the probability increasing, while improving the chances is referring to a probability change that benefits one specific party.
For example:
My horse is more likely to fall down on the track because of the rainwater.
Referring to yourself:
There is an increased change that I will lose the race.
Or you could say, referring to your opponent:
There is an improved chance that my opponent will win the race.
However, many English speakers would rather stick to "increase" instead of "improve" AFAIK.
