Mariam AlyAug 2, 2023

Why are some people so much better at trivia than others?

Trivia experts’ memory for obscure facts may be supported by memory for how and when they learned them.

Love this project with Monica Thieu & Lauren Wilkins – also featuring Jeopardy!'s Ken Jennings!

Thread below 👇🏽

https://psyarxiv.com/fm82b/

Show threadMariam AlyAug 2, 2023
We were inspired by the personal experiences of trivia experts (like Ken Jennings and Monica Thieu, Jeopardy! champion and first author!): when they remembered facts, they also sometimes remembered the specific way they learned them.
Show threadMariam AlyAug 2, 2023

We designed a novel task in which 132 participants varying in trivia expertise encoded “exhibits” of naturalistic facts with related photos in one of two “museums”.

We then tested their memory for the facts and recognition of the associated photo and museum.

Show threadMariam Aly

Greater trivia expertise predicted higher recall for novel facts – trivia experts were better at learning brand new obscure facts!

Critically, trivia experts but not non-experts showed superior fact recall when they remembered both features (photo and museum) from the learning context.

Aug 2, 2023 at 2:46pmWeb
Show threadMariam AlyAug 2, 2023

These findings suggest that episodic memory (memory for the learning event, in this case) might scaffold new fact learning in trivia experts.

Our findings also show the value of studying trivia experts as a special population that can shed light on the mechanisms of memory.

Show threadMariam AlyAug 2, 2023

This study was a ton of fun and I'm so proud of first author Monica Thieu and second author Lauren Wilkins for their hard work. This was a great example of taking inspiration from real life to make novel discoveries in the lab!

And thanks Ken Jennings for the consultations :)

Show threadWilliam Ngiam | 严祥全Aug 2, 2023
@mariam This is so cool – what a fun angle to learn about memory!
Show threadMariam AlyAug 2, 2023
@will_ngiam Thank you! I had so much fun working on this project. It was truly a passion project driven by curiosity – wanting to understand why Monica is so much better at trivia than the rest of us 😀
Show threadWilliam Ngiam | 严祥全Aug 2, 2023

@mariam Love to hear that your science is motivated by curiosity! I've long admired Jeopardy! champions for what they know and can quickly retrieve in what seems to be a heartbeat – and now I know that they're helped along by their contexts!

(Will you be able to convince enough Jeopardy! champions to get into scanners to see if their MTLs are built differently? 🧠 )

Show threadMariam AlyAug 2, 2023
@will_ngiam Haha, indeed! Monica has extensive connections to Jeopardy! champs through her time on the show so maybe I can convince her to help with that in between her other projects 😀
Show threadkari hoffmanAug 15, 2023
@mariam so which way do you think the causality goes? 1. Anyone’s effort to encode #contextmemory or episodes for #episodicmemory aids trivia knowledge, or 2. people with special ability to retain contextual/episodic details can use those abilities to benefit trivia recall? The above statement suggests 2. But I’m hoping for 1. , for the rest of us mere mortals.
Show threadMariam AlyAug 16, 2023
@karihoffman Great question! We hope a bit of the answer is #1 -- studies that train ppl to encode context will be useful in determining whether that benefits fact memory. But I am not sure that completely explains what we see in trivia experts: they don't intentionally try to encode episodic details, at least the ones we've spoken to.
Also, #2 doesn't quite fit -- trivia experts aren't better across the board on episodic memory. They just have superior episodic-semantic binding!
Show threadMariam AlyAug 16, 2023

@karihoffman So to answer your question, it isn't clear what the causal arrow is, but it does seem like trivia experts have superior episodic-semantic binding, that this is *not* due to enhanced episodic memory overall, and it is *not* driven by intentionally trying to link the episodic context to the semantic facts -- as far as we can tell.

I should also say it's not clear whether trivia experts *encode* episodic-semantic links better or are better at *retrieving* them. Exciting questions!