Role of Context in Memorability of Intuitive and Counterintuitive Concepts

A number of recent studies have shown that minimally counterintuitive concepts are better recalled than intuitive and maximally counterintuitive concepts. This paper presents a computational model that relates memorability of a concept to the amount of new information that the concept provides to a rational agent seeking to build a more accurate model of its environment. Given two different types of concepts (or same type of concepts presented in two different contexts), the model can be used to make strong predictions about which concepts will be better comprehended, remembered, and recalled by people. Free recall experiments with human subjects provide strong support to the memorability hypothesis.