Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 February 5

= February 5 =

Do robbers ever contact medical support for their victims?
I know that, from a strategic point of view, calling emergency services for somebody that you just intentionally injured doesn’t make a lot of sense. But given that many murders are unplanned and criminals can still feel guilt or remorse, the concept doesn’t strike me as being all that absurd either. —(((Romanophile))) ♞ (contributions) 11:54, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Has it ever happened... ever? I almost guarantee it. Is this close enough? There's also this somewhat related piece. Criminals are not typically classified as exceptionally moral, but there is also a strategic component that could come into play - see felony murder rule. Calling an ambulance might prevent the death and the subsequent harsher sentence upon being caught. Matt Deres (talk) 15:24, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

Cognitive science and memory
What would be some empirically studied factors that influence our retention of information aka memory? For example, something like spaced repetition and the forgetting curve. --Bumptump (talk) 18:43, 5 February 2022 (UTC)


 * A complicating aspect is that memory is not one single cognitive faculty, but is best understood as consisting of distinct faculties: short-term memory and long-term memory. Many cognitive scientists also consider working memory as being distinct from short-term memory. A concept such as memory span focusses on short-term memory, while the forgetting curve is about long-term memory. Focussing on long-term memory, there is a tremendous variation in the kind of information to be retained and reproduced, and also a substantial variation in whether a recall test is multiple choice or free, and in the latter case how the answers given are transformed into a performance score. And, finally, a confounding factor is that people develop various strategies for memorizing, and that different people use different strategies, which have different characteristics in interaction with factors that can influence retention. Almost any factor that some cognitive scientist has imagined could plausibly influence retention has also been studied, but due to the plethora of possibilities few published studies have been replicated. One consistent finding is that a good night's sleep after hours of cramming significantly increases retention. In the end, the best results can be expected from a combination of factors. One study reports good results with an approach to learning a foreign language (Spanish) through a method dubbed COLT (for Colorado Optimized Language Tutor), using "flash cards", combined with systematic, temporally spaced "personalized" reviews; for details see this chapter "Predicting and Improving Memory Retention", which also reviews some of the literature. --Lambiam 10:15, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Even beyond concepts such as long-term and short-term memory, there are completely different ways we "remember", Explicit memory is the sort of memory where we are able to recall events we participated in; that is a completely different function than Procedural memory, which is the sort of memory that helps us repeat complex actions we have learned in the past (things like how to do long division, how to ride a bicycle, or how to play a musical instrument). We're not even remotely close to understanding the ways in which memories are stored in the brain, except in the broadest strokes.  -- Jayron 32 17:42, 7 February 2022 (UTC)