3 ms·
The basic idea has to do with a concept called processing fluency. Studies have shown that the harder your brain has to work to process the information, the mo
by jawns 8y ago
The basic idea has to do with a concept called processing fluency. Studies have shown that the harder your brain has to work to process the information, the more likely you are to absorb it -- at least to a point.
One recent study that manipulated processing fluency using a hard-to-read font is "Fluency and the detection of misleading questions: Low processing fluency attenuates the Moses illusion," Social Cognition, 2008.
The study found that people who read information in a hard-to-read font were better at spotting a certain category of error than people who read the same information in an easy-to-read font.
(Incidentally, this study is one that I adapted for my book "Experiments for Newlyweds: 50 Amazing Science Projects You Can Perform With Your Spouse," due out in April. So if you know any couples who'd like to try it out together, it makes a great wedding gift!)
- metalliqaz 8y agoDo any of those 50 experiments involve being naked? Asking for a friend.
- dang 8y agoPlease don't do this here.
- metalliqaz 8y agoJust curious, why else would it be specifically for newlyweds? What's the big deal?
- Y_Y 8y agoI have a book on shameless shilling you might like to read.
- dang 8y agoThis comment breaks the site guidelines. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow them when posting here.
- Al-Khwarizmi 8y agoWhen I was a student, I used multilinguality for a similar purpose. When I was studying from notes or a book in Spanish (my native language), I would review in English. Actually, my review consisted in presenting the contents to an invisible audience in English (yes, I've never been able to study in libraries or other places where you need to remain silent, most of my time studying consists in standing and talking...) Conversely, when I studied from material in English, I would review it in Spanish, also by presenting to an invisible audience. I always found this to be very effective (even before learning about the cognitive science concept you point out). Of course, it's just anecdotal evidence with sample size of 1. But it's a fun way to study anyway, it also lets you practice a foreign language, and you're more likely to not get bored and set "autopilot" on (maybe this was also a big factor why it worked for me...)