New Study Finds People Remember More Than They Think

An anonymous reader writes "A new study has shown that people subconsciously retain information about things they've seen even if they can't consciously remember. From the article: 'Luis Martinez of CSIC- Miguel Hernandez University in Spain and his team "read minds" with the Princess Card Trick, an act invented by magician Henry Hardin in 1905. Participants in the study mentally picked out a playing card from a group of six cards, which then disappeared. When a second group of cards appeared, the researchers had amazingly figured out which card a person had in mind and removed it. Very few people caught the trick: All of the cards in the second set were different, not just the card that people had chosen. This trick is well-known to confuse the masses, even via the Internet a magician's sleight of hand can make it seem as though he/she legitimately "read your mind" A few moments after viewing the two panels of cards, volunteers were asked which of two new cards was present in the first set of cards. None of the volunteers could actually recall which card was present. Despite claiming that they had no idea, when they were forced to choose, people got the right answer around 80 percent of the time. “People say they don’t know, but they do,” Martinez said. “The information is still there, and we can use it unconsciously if we are forced to.”'"

Comments

"Selective" Memory

[Pastor Jake]

This doesn't surprise me at all. God chooses for us what we can and can't remember, and it is through His will that our memories come to us in the time we need them most. Yours in Christ, Jake

Re:"Selective" Memory

[Anonymous Coward]

This doesn't surprise me at all. God chooses for us what we can and can't remember, and it is through His will that our memories come to us in the time we need them most.

Yours in Christ,
Jake

Leave them kids alone pastor-pedo.

My friends have selective memory

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

They remember me when they need a ride to and from the airport, but they can't remember to pay me back the money they've borrowed.

Re:My friends have selective memory

[Anonymous Coward]

better yet, pick them up start driving and then say your gas tank is empty.
And say you have no money. (you have money)

Re:My friends have selective memory

[saleenS281]

I think what you meant to say was that this solves all three problems. The friend, the money, and uh... uh... the EPA?

Yeah yeah yeah

[Afell001]

They say the first thing to go is your memory and the second...well, dammit, I keep forgetting the second...

Re:Pretty useless

[chromas]

It gets hashed and stored in a table. When there's a collision, a DejaVu exception is raised.

Re:should be

[PopeRatzo]

from the new-study-finds-already-known-stuff dept.

I'm still trying to figure out how they do the trick.

How do they pick the right card again?

I wish they would do a study on what a vodka and grapefruit juice after a long day does to my cognitive abilities.

Can someone please explain the trick to me? Is he picking the right card, or a card that looks like the right card? I mean, if you showed me six cards and I pick one and then you show me a different six cards, I'm going to remember what my card looked like, unless all twelve cards are very similar.

Oh crap, now I'm going to have to either go read the article or just call it a day and go to sleep. The wife's already in bed reading and it's 28 degrees here in Chicago, and the bed and wife are more beckoning than the article. Add this to the list of things I will probably never know.