Fourth Industrial Revolution

Why having a good memory could mean you get bored of things faster

A girl plays with a giant bubble as the sun sets at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, California June 30, 2011. Picture taken June 30.       REUTERS/Mike Blake  (UNITED STATES - Tags: SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Marketers could perhaps use this type of research to craft strategies on ways to keep people interested longer. Image: REUTERS/Mike Blake

George Diepenbrock
Public Affairs Officer & Executive Speechwriter, The University of Kansas

Memory could be the key to how quickly we get tired of certain experiences, such as listening to music or eating certain foods.

“People with larger working memory capacities actually encode information more deeply,” says Noelle Nelson, lead author of the study in the Journal of Consumer Research. “They remember more details about the things they’ve experienced, and that leads them to feel like they’ve had it more. That feeling then leads to the ‘large-capacity’ people getting tired of experiences faster.”

The study could have implications for marketers seeking to maintain interest in their products and brands. Consumers could also benefit from the research because it provides a window into how memory could be the key to becoming satiated, especially on products or habits they hope to quit, such as eating unhealthy foods.

“Our findings suggest that if they can enhance their memory for the other times they’ve eaten these foods, they may feel satiated and then not seek out those unhealthy things,” says Nelson, assistant professor of marketing and consumer behavior in the University of Kansas School of Business.

Nelson and coauthor Joseph Redden, associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, conducted four separate experiments with undergraduate students. The researchers measured people’s working memory capacities in different ways, such as how well they could remember a string of letters or how they performed on the Simon memory game, in which users try to repeat a series of tones and lights.

Then participants performed a task in which they would eventually become tired of what they experienced, like viewing paintings or listening to music.

“We found that their capacity predicted how fast they got tired of the art or music,” Nelson says. “People with larger memory capacities satiated on these things more quickly than people with smaller capacities. Essentially, large-capacity people perceive that they’ve experienced things more times because they remember those experiences better.”

Past research has only speculated on the link between memory and the rate of satiation, but this study provides direct evidence, she says.

Marketers could perhaps use this type of research to craft strategies on ways to keep people interested longer. “For example, introducing new products or having distractions in ads might help break up the satiation process because they disrupt memory,” Nelson says.

The researchers didn’t specifically study overeating or unhealthy foods, but the findings should extend to those types of experiences, she says.

“Because a big part of overeating is psychological, a psychological solution such as memory processes could help people control their eating,” Nelson says. “Consumers might be able to satiate more quickly by simply recalling the last several times they ate.”

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Innovation

Related topics:
Fourth Industrial RevolutionHealth and Healthcare Systems
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Innovation is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Explainer: What is digital trust in the intelligent age?

Daniel Dobrygowski and Bart Valkhof

November 14, 2024

Skyways to the Future: Operational Concepts for Advanced Air Mobility in India

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum