The Guardian – Marlieke van Kesteren
“Imagine how much you already know. Just contemplate everything you have learned and experienced during all the years that you have been alive. Everything. Seems pretty vast, doesn’t it? Your brain is full of knowledge gathered throughout your lifetime. Storing all this knowledge is beneficial because it can be used to predict future occurrences. For example, you have seen so many chairs that you instantly recognise a new one for what it is, even when it has a slightly different appearance. This predictive power allows your brain to process everyday occurrences quickly and efficiently – you need to store only the things that are new. In the chair example, your brain records the way this particular chair deviates from previously encountered ones. Something different happens when we encounter things completely outside of our usual experience. If your brain is surprised, it finds that memorable – and this is known as the “novelty effect”. The element of newness helps your brain form a strong memory.”(more)