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Maybe, the next time you're looking for that other sock, yopu should ask your child. Researchers found small children apparently have better memories than their parents. In fact, a 5-year-old could beat most adults on a recognition memory test, at least under specific conditions.
Why? Because the ability adults have to store knowledge actually decrease their memory accuracy.
Scientists showed 77 young children, with an average age of 5, and 71 college students pictures of cats, bears and birds. The study was designed to make the volunteers look at the pictures but they did not know what was being tested.
The kids were accurate 31 percent of the time in identifying pictures of animals they had seen earlier, while the adults were accurate only 7 percent of the time.
Researchers theorize children used a different form of reasoning called similarity-based induction when they analyzed the pictures. When shown subsequent pictures of animals they looked carefully to see if the animal looked similar to the original cat.
Yahoo News July 22, 2004
Science Daily July 22, 2004