Tuesday, May 17, 2005

~ too much knowledge can lead to imprecise memory ~

The less you know, the better you remember certain details. Accuracy in recall can be hampered by the intelligent adult tendency to categorize.

"There seems to be an inverse relationship between the ability to categorize and the ability to remember details," Sloutsky said. "If you're very attentive to details - like the children in this experiment - you can't create categories. But without ignoring the details, we would be unable to categorize."

First, they found that there is a gradual decrease in recognition memory from children to adults - there is no large jump that occurs as people approach adulthood. Secondly, the study shows that it is "lack of knowledge - not something specific to children - that helps make recognition memory more accurate." That's why adults had accurate, child-like memory in the experiment in which they were tested using the imaginary animals. Read the article


This may be an argument to select jurors whose purported knowledge is far afield from the case facts in order to impress upon them your viewpoint!

|

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

PopdexSearch

BlogSearchengine

A Legally Inclined Weblog