Recording information

Context

Learned in this study

• Information is not the same as data. The same information can be expressed (coded) using more or less data

Things to explore

• Which channel has the best retention rate?
• What is the rate of image creation within the mind?
• Given that the brain currently has a given architecture, would it be able to adapt to higher bit rate of data/information?

Overview

Output

• Handwriting: 30 wpm ¹ (43k/day)
• Sign: About half the rate of speech, thus 50-62 wpm ²
• Typing: 50-80 wpm ^{1 3} (72-115k/day)
• Speech: 100-125 wpm (144-180k/day) for slide presentations, 150-160 wpm (216-230k/day) for audiobooks ¹

Input

• Listening: 100-125 wpm for slide presentations, 150-160 wpm for audiobooks ¹
  • Audio/Video/Speech generator can be speed up while allowing us to still retain comprehension, however it does not appear that any metric for this is available
• Reading: 228±30 wpm (in English) ¹

Space requirements

Retention

You remember approximately 30 percent of what you see.
You remember approximately 50 percent of what you hear and see together.
You remember approximately 70 percent of what you say (if you think as you are saying it).
You remember approximately 90 percent of what you do.⁴

Source: Darthmouth College

We retain approximately 10 percent of what we see;
30 to 40 percent of what we see and hear;
and 90 percent of what we see, hear, and do.
We all have the capability to learn via all three styles, but are usually dominate in one. ⁵

Source: National Highway Institute

⁶

Retention by medium

• I am not aware of any research which evaluates memory retention based on the medium through which the information was transmitted, however it would be interesting to have results on this question

Accuracy of recall

• For some form of memory, it is possible to evaluate with various methods the accuracy of the recall
  • For instance, for text, we could evaluate the number of numbers or words correctly remembered. We could also ask a person to read a given amount of text and to summarize it, which would be another form of recall (hearing to speech)
  • In the same manner, an experimented could say a list of numbers or words and ask the person to recall those words (hearing to speech)
  • We can show a picture and ask the subject to redraw the picture (image to speech)
• Some other forms of memory are much harder to evaluate because we have less vocabulary to describe them, more specifically
  • We can show a picture and ask the subject to describe the picture (image to motor commands)
• In all cases it is important to attempt to dissociate recalling from the part where execution happens (telling the experimenter about the memory either through spoken words, written words, drawings or motor commands for instance)

Recognition vs recollection

• You can recognize something, yet not recall it (recognize parts of a whole)
• When studying a subject through a book, it's easy to recognize sections you've read through, however it is much more difficult to recall what the section contains, word for word

See also

• Senses

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0