When you’re in the business of building loyalty and coaxing repeat purchase from your audiences (and aren’t we all?), a positive experience with your programming is only part of the battle. The real impact comes in how the experience is remembered over time. Brain science is starting to discover how and why the actual experience and the remembered experience can be radically different.
This article from Miller-McCune describes recent discoveries about the brain that suggest our memories don’t evolve linearly from experienced fact (called ”verbatim” memory) to remembered essence (called ”gist”). But rather, these two systems are working simultaneously. Says the article:
When an event occurs, verbatim memory records an accurate representation. But even as it is doing so, gist memory begins processing the information and determining how it fits into our existing storehouse of knowledge. Verbatim memories generally die away within a day or two, leaving only the gist memory, which records the event as we interpreted it.
The two tracks of encoding can sometimes lead to a disconnect between what actually happened, and what the individual remembers:
Under certain circumstances, this can produce a phenomenon [experimental psychologist Valerie] Reyna and her colleagues refer to as ”phantom recollection.” She calls this ”a powerful form of false alarm” in which gist memory — designed to look for patterns and fill in perceived gaps — creates a vivid but illusory image in our mind.
Not that we should all toy with the minds of our audiences (or, should we?), but the discovery of verbatim and gist running in parallel does suggest some strategic opportunities for cultural managers. For example, can we create an environment in which patrons remember neutral experiences favorably, or in which positive experiences are encoded in gist memory with an extra boost?
Since we all tend to construct the context and relevance of an experience within groups, rather than alone (social semiotics anyone?), we might have important opportunities to rig the game in the moments following a cultural experience — or in spaces within one. Any effort to help an audience member bring relevant context to the experience before, during, and after might help, as well.
In essence, verbatim and gist memory suggest that the performance may be over when the fat lady sings, but the encoding and recollection of that performance will take days to find its shape.
