On Jun 3, 2011, at 8:03 PM, Sandy Harris wrote:

> http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/memorable-images-0524.html
> 

Thanks Sandy. Somewhat flawed research, but interesting as far as it goes. One 
problem is that they are talking about memorability, but their operational 
definition involves a task that asks people whether they remember seeing an 
image before. For most people I suspect that a "memorable" image or a 
"memorable" occasion is one that has more to it than that we can remember that 
it happened. What they need is a check on the operational definition by, for 
example, having a separate group rate "how memorable is photo x, photo y, . . . 
"  Ratings of memorability may or may not correlate with how well remembered 
the images are. Another problem is that they treat images in the abstract, and 
they ask their research subjects to react to many many images that came from 
somebody else. What they are leaving out of consideration is the emotional 
component. Images will be more memorable if they portray something that we are 
interested in, have a connection to. I would bet they had a youngish research 
sample, people who haven't had the opportunity to travel to the mountains or 
the jungles, to be exposed to various kinds of architectural spaces, etc. What 
even a youngish sample will have had experience with is other people and so 
they will better relate to images of other people and so they will remember 
those images. Which doesn't' make those images in any sense better, more 
desirable or even more memorable, and it is nonsense for them to talk about 
building their algorithms into cameras to give us an indication whether the 
scene we are chimping is a keeper or not.

stan
 
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