NEW YORK: If you often get tired of discussing travel memories with your wife who still holds those moments close to her heart, don't blame yourself. You may have a larger working memory than her!
According to a new study led by a University of Kansas researcher, persons with larger working memory capacities actually encode information more deeply.
"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," said Noelle Nelson, lead author of the research published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Nelson, along with Joseph Redden, Associate Professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, conducted four separate experiments with under-graduate student participants.
Then participants then performed a task where 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 said. "People with larger memory capacities satiated on these things more quickly than people with smaller capacities".
Essentially, large capacity persons perceive that they've experienced things more times because they remember those experiences better.
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 said.
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.