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>Immediate and delayed verbal verbal memory were assessed using a word learning task in which participants were presented with 10 common words by a taped voice,
by Merrill 7y ago
>Immediate and delayed verbal verbal memory were assessed using a word learning task in which participants were presented with 10 common words by a taped voice, one every 2 seconds. Participants had to recall as many words as possible immediately and after a short delay during which they completed other cognitive tests.
This is the measure that declined in heavy television watchers. It is also a task that television watching doesn't require, since recall of previous spoken words is rarely needed to understand the next video sequence.
It's also a task that I don't do well on. I do much better if the words are presented in writing. I can watch a TV show and not remember a thing about it later. It may be a way the brain has of protecting memory from being overwritten by nonsense.
- rightbyte 7y agoIf your health is bad you probably watch more TV and listens to radio, though, since you can't go out as easily.
- Merrill 7y agoTrue, although I know people who neither watch much TV nor have lots of social interactions with people. There engage in other passive activities like reading or they have a variety of hobbies, sports, etc. Some people have little need to listen to chatter, either from a box or face-to-face.
- mlyle 7y agoThe question is what causes what. We know that TV and cognitive decline in this population are associated. Does television watching cause cognitive decline? Does cognitive decline cause television watching? Does some other factor cause both television watching and cognitive decline? Knowing some people are inactive and read books doesn't help much in probing this. Because we're not asserting cognitive decline always causes television watching, or whatever.
- jperiasw 7y agoWhat if you are from a developing country and have to rely on subtitles to understand the sequence, and also you cant read fast enough and hence you need to rewind sometimes to retain the sequence. Is this good or bad?
- Merrill 7y agoThe linear presentation of audio or video is inefficient because it is tedious to refer back in order to recover a train of thought or search for previous material. Some MOOC courses are given primarily by video lectures with a side-by-side transcript. I can read faster than the audio, even with the audio set to 1.5 X speed. It's also easier to skip back and re-scan the transcript. Reading the transcript at the same time as listening to the audio enhances retention.
- mannykannot 7y ago> I do much better if the words are presented in writing. I can watch a TV show and not remember a thing about it later. Maybe that is because when we read a story, we imagine much more about it than when watching it on a screen, and that effort makes more of an impression?