Eirini Zormpa will defend her thesis Friday 18th of December 2020

Link to live-stream

We learn things through language, sometimes by ourselves and sometimes when talking with others. It would make sense, then, for us to remember what we read or hear especially well. Is that true? In her doctoral thesis, Eirini Zormpa asked what people remember better, what they say or what they hear.

She first tested people by themselves and identified two factors that improve memory. People remember words they think of themselves better than words they hear. They also remember words they say aloud better than words they say silently.

She then looked at short exchanges. She found that people remember answers better than questions, presumably because they consider answers more important. She also found, that although people generally remember what they say better than what they hear, that difference shrinks if what they hear answers one of their questions. As such, people remember different things from conversations depending on their roles.