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We remember facts better when they are in story form. For example, suppose I ask 100 people to memorize a list of fifty words, and then I ask you which word wa
by jxf 4y ago
We remember facts better when they are in story form.
For example, suppose I ask 100 people to memorize a list of fifty words, and then I ask you which word was a food item. Many people find this challenging.
If I change the experiment so that I tell a story using all fifty words, and then ask you "what did the grandmother have for breakfast?", you're much more likely to do better.
- bell-cot 4y ago> We remember facts better when they are in story form... True, but orthogonal to my point. Outside of myth, fantasy novels, and children's stories, most writing about destructive natural phenomena does not anthropomorphize Mount St. Helens as it erupted, the asteroid which hit the Moon to create Tycho Crater, the solar flare which caused the Carrington Event, etc.
- jxf 4y agoI think you may just not be looking closely enough. Using your first example, here are things Mt. St. Helens is described as doing in just one contemporaneous article: - roaring - belching - "[knocked down] millions of trees [...] like a giant playing pick-up sticks" - slumbering - menacing That all sounds very anthropomorphic to me. [0] https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,924152,00.html https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,924...
- bell-cot 4y agoPoint, though my recollection (not gonna review 1,001 old articles on the eruption, to do stats) is that the anthropomorphic descriptions tended to be in "I was too damn close, and it was very scary" accounts. I won't look down at anthropomorphism in that case - it's likely a good reflection of the author's (or his source's) very human experience and emotional reactions to danger.
- anigbrowl 4y agoTrue, but inaccurate stories create false memories. This is just bad writing.