Boing Boing: Childlike wonder good for memory

"...In this new experiment, adults were shown three different types of imaginary, insect-like creatures that (cognitive science professor Vladimir) Sloutsky calls 'ziblets.' In this experiment, adults performed as well as children did in the first study in remembering which ziblets they had seen before without having many 'false positives.'

The difference here was that the adults had no previous knowledge that allowed them to easily categorize the ziblets without paying close attention to each picture.

'They remembered them because they had to pay close attention,' Sloutsky said. 'They remembered the details.'"

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