The chances of recalling words up to 14 weeks after reading them can be increased by making bizarre images of them in your mind. This study, carried out by Dr Worthen from Southeastern Louisiana University and published this week in the British Journal of Psychology, sought to find out why.

Dr Worthen said: "Previous studies have found that bizarreness aids recall and memory, but have not been able to discover the reasons why. We wanted to find out whether this was an independent effect or linked to other known memory tricks such as humour or elaboration."

Thirty nine people were asked to generate a bizarre image from three words - from the words man, hat, and sheep, for example, one participant imagined a man wearing a sheep as a hat. The bizarre images were then rated for funniness. The participants were not told that they would ever have to recall either the words or the image, but fourteen weeks later they were asked to recall the word triplets in a surprise test.

"We found that bizarre elaboration enhanced recall at a later date, but only when the bizarre image was also funny. This means that bizarreness alone is not enhancing memory, but is part of the humour effect - when something is funny, people process it distinctly which leads to a better memory for it," concluded Dr Worthen.

So next time you want to remember your shopping list, imagine a chicken eating a carrot lying in a bath of cream and you may have a better chance of coming back with what you set out for.




Source: British Psychological Society (Press Release)