Smarts

How to become smarter and more effective

Tad Waddington, Ph.D. is the author of Lasting Contribution: How to Think, Plan, and Act to Accomplish Meaningful Work, a book that has won five prestigious awards. See full bio

November 19, 2008, Memory

Comments on "Become Smarter: Recognition Is Stronger Than Recall"

Become Smarter: Recognition Is Stronger Than Recall

By Tad Waddington, Ph.D. on November 19, 2008 in Smarts

There are loads of tricks you can use to become smarter and more effective.

Here is a quirk of memory that will help you when you can't recall something. Read More

Fuggitaboudit

Submitted by Shamrock on November 19, 2008 - 11:23am.

When I can't remember, I make a point to blow it off and just "Forget About It"

Reference

Submitted by Tad Waddington, Ph.D. on November 23, 2008 - 10:28am.

From Graf, P., Squire, L.S., and Mandler, G. 1984. "The information that amnesic patients do not foret." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 10: 164-178. Tad Waddington, PhDhttps://www.LastingContribution.com

In your example the man

Submitted by Robyn Giraldo on January 15, 2009 - 6:34pm.

In your example the man remembered the colors but not the name on the sign. Then when he saw the name in the book he recognized it. Is it something to do with short-term and long-term memory? Did he bring the name up from his long-term memory?

Something to contradict this happened to me. I did a quiz which showed two labels each of several food products. The two labels were slightly different and we had to choose which was the correct one. Well I got just about all of them wrong! I have been buying Heinz ketchup for many years but did not recall that there was a chilli pepper below the name. After so many years of picking up a bottle of ketchup in the supermarket, why did I not recall that detail?

Recognition and Recall

Submitted by Tad Waddington, Ph.D. on March 5, 2009 - 7:08am.

It is definitely long-term memory. The person in the example needed the clue of seeing the name of the hotel on the page to be able to access the memory.

I think your ketchup example has to do with never having put the information into memory to begin with, which is not a memory problem, but an attention problem. For example, even though I've handled thousands of pennies, I would not be able to describe which way Lincoln is facing, exactly where the date goes, and what all is written on one, because I've never really paid attention.