Close X
Monday, November 11, 2024
ADVT 
Interesting

Errors sharpen memory while learning

Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Oct, 2014 07:06 AM
    Committing mistakes while learning can benefit the memory and lead one to come up with the correct answer, but only if the guess is a near miss, a research revealed.
     
    "Making random guesses does not appear to benefit later memory for the right answer but near-miss guesses act as stepping stones for retrieval of the correct information - and this benefit is seen in younger and older adults," said lead investigator Andree-Ann Cyr from the Baycrest Health Sciences' Rotman Research Institute and the University of Toronto.
     
    In the latest study, 65 healthy younger adults (average age 22) and 64 healthy older adults (average age 72) learned target words like rose, based either on the semantic category it belongs to (a flower) or its word stem (a word that begins with the letters 'ro').
     
    For half of the words, participants were given the answer right away ('the answer is rose') and for the other half, they were asked to guess before seeing the answer (a flower: 'is it tulip? or ro___ : is it rope?').
     
    The researchers wanted to know if participants would be better at remembering rose if they had made wrong guesses prior to studying it rather than seeing it right away.
     
    They found that remembering improved if participants' learnt on the basis of categories (a flower).
     
    Guessing made memory worse when words were learned based on word stems (ro___).
     
    This was the case for both younger and older adults.
     
    "This is because our memory organises information based on how it is conceptually rather than lexically related to other information," Cyr added.
     
    For example, when you think of the word pear, your mind is more likely to jump to another fruit, such as apple, than to a word that looks similar, such as peer.
     
    The latest research provides evidence that trial-and-error learning can benefit memory in both young and old, when errors are meaningfully related to the right answer. And can harm memory when they are not.
     
    The paper appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

    MORE Interesting ARTICLES

    Why unequal pay irks employees

    Why unequal pay irks employees
    Ever wondered why it bothers you when your colleague earns more even when both of you do the same job? This is because humans have a...

    Why unequal pay irks employees

    Is your dog a pessimist? Find out

    Is your dog a pessimist? Find out
    According to Australian researchers, finding out as accurately as possible whether a particular dog is optimistic or pessimistic is particularly helpful...

    Is your dog a pessimist? Find out

    Want good raise at work? Get a supportive wife

    Want good raise at work? Get a supportive wife
    Do not just blame your boss or jealous colleagues for no promotion or salary hike at work - your spouse's personality is equally important to decide....

    Want good raise at work? Get a supportive wife

    People with larger pupil size bad decision makers

    People with larger pupil size bad decision makers
    Once the relevant information was presented, a larger pupil size indicated poorer upcoming task performance owing to more variability in the decisions made....

    People with larger pupil size bad decision makers

    Marriage queries annoy single Indian women most

    Marriage queries annoy single Indian women most
    When are you getting married and why aren't you getting married? are questions that annoy single Indian women most, according to a survey by personalised...

    Marriage queries annoy single Indian women most

    Parrots show how to be committed in relationship

    Parrots show how to be committed in relationship
    Humans have learnt a great deal about complex social behaviour from other species. It's time now for the avians to teach us a few lessons....

    Parrots show how to be committed in relationship