View Full Version : Whose irrelevance filter?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7132829.stm
People's 'working memory' varies "not just due to having a larger or smaller memory store, but also due to differences in how effectively irrelevant items are kept out of memory, the Karolinksa Institute researchers believe."
The question is: irrelevant to whom?
cruise4
10-12-2007, 07:16 PM
Thats interesting though. I tend to go through information and remember the conclusion. I don't store all the information that got me to that conclusion. The logic path is stored. Others remember the lot. I wonder if there's a left/right brain thing going on here? Once the conclusion is reached the information path to it could be seen as irrelevant and any new information act on the conclusion. Remember the flowchart, not the data maybe? I suppose that could lead to building on error so how good your conclusion is would be a deciding factor.
I get what you're saying. I'm thinking that, as with 'junk DNA', there's a tendency for the science media to marginalise any part of any physical/mental process that doesn't lead to where it's supposed to go in an analytical system underpinned by singular hypotheses/proofs.
I'm suspicious of anyone telling me what's irrelevant. Without 'irrelevant' data to review and reflect on - the more or less 'irrelevant' stages in the [determinist] flowchart showing the route from cause to effect - how could we ever change our own minds in the light of ours and others' experiences?