3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Mind and Memory
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Mind and Memory
Recognition Rather than Recall, Peak–End Rule & the Mandela Effect
The last long-form essay for the year 2022 is now live. I wrote about inverted thinking and exploding whales: Via Negativa: The Power of Knowing What Not to Do.
I. Recognition Rather than Recall
When we interact with a digital product such as a submission form, we want our experience to be easy and pleasant. If you ever had to deal with a poorly designed online form you know how annoying a lack of usability can be.
Recognition Rather than Recall is one of ten usability heuristics for user interface design proposed by user advocate Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen’s sixth principle takes our limited short-term memory into account:
Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed. […]
It’s easier for most people to recognize the capitals of countries, instead of having to remember them. People are more likely to correctly answer the question Is Lisbon the capital of Portugal? rather than What’s the capital of Portugal?
—Jakob Nielsen
II. Peak–End Rule
The past is fixed and cannot be changed. But someone should tell that our brains. The Peak–End Rule is a cognitive bias affecting how we recall past events. We tend to put more weight on emotionally powerful peaks and the last moments (ends) of an experience. This applies to both positive and negative moments.
Let’s say you’ve been watching a game of your favourite football team. That one glorious moment mid-game and the fact that your team scored a goal at the end might overshadow your recollection of the club’s overall mediocre performance.
Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow
III. Mandela Effect
The Mandela Effect is a false memory phenomenon first coined by paranormal researcher Fiona Broome in 2009. It happens when people mysteriously share a false memory about a historical event that never happened.
By her own account, Broome had vivid memories of South African civil rights advocate Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. And she wasn’t alone in thinking so. The only problem was: Mandela was alive and well. He became president of South Africa in the 1990s and didn’t pass away until 2013. 🐘
Thank you all for reading The Mind Collection. And thank you for all your support, likes, shares and feedback in the past year. There won‘t be a newsletter next week. So I’m wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! See you again in 2023!
Chris
themindcollection.com
