Associative nature of memory
Answer the first two questions below out loud, and then blurt out the first thing that pops into your mind in response to sentence 3:
1. What continent is Kenya in?
2. What are the two opposing colors in the game of chess?
3. Name any animal.
Roughly 20 percent of people answer “zebra” to sentence 3, and about 50 percent respond with an animal from Africa. But, when asked to name an animal out of the blue, less than 1 percent of people will answer “zebra.” In other words, by directing your attention to Africa and the colors black and white, it is possible to manipulate your answer.
…knowledge is stored in an associative manner: related concepts (zebra/Africa…) are linked to each other…thinking of one concept somehow “spreads” to other related concepts, making them more likely to be recalled.
Related
We need to study memory to understand KM
(Source: NPR)
