Minimal-Counterintuitiveness Revisited
Effects of cultural and ontological violations on concept memorability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.v1i2.181Keywords:
concept memory, cultural versus ontological expectationsAbstract
Many religious ideas have attributes that violate our expectations about the state of the natural world. It has been argued that minimal counter-intuitiveness (MCI), defined as a mild violation of innate (ontological) expectations, makes such ideas memorable and prone to cultural transmission. Empirical studies have examined memory for concepts that violate innate ontological expectations; however memorability of ideas that defy cultural or learned expectations have been (with few exceptions) overlooked. In our study, we compared memory for ideas that violate intuitive ontologies, learned expectations, and everyday, intuitive ideas. We discuss the mnemonic advantage of minimally counterintuitive ideas in terms of a combination of associative strength and bizarreness.
References
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Lawson, E T., and R.N. McCauley. 1990. Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mealey, L., C. Daood and M. Krage. 1996. “Enhanced memory for faces of cheaters.” Ethology and Sociobiology 17: 119–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(95)00131-X
Michotte, A. 1962. The perception of causality. Andover, MA: Methuen.
Norenzayan, A., and S. Atran. 2004. “Cognitive and emotional processes in the cultural transmission of natural and nonnatural beliefs.” In The Psychological Foundations of Culture, edited by M. Schaller and C. Crandall, 149?169. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Norenzayan, A., S. Atran, J. Faulkner and M. Schaller. 2006. “Memory and mystery: The cultural selection of minimally counterintuitive narratives.” Cognitive Science 30: 531?553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0000_68
Ranganath C., and G. Rainer. 2003. “Neural mechanisms for detecting and remembering novel events.” Nature Review Neuroscience 4: 193–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrn1052
Schmidt, S. R. 1991. “Can we have a distinctive theory of memory?” Memory and Cognition 19: 523–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03197149
Scholl, B. J., and P. D. Tremoulet. 2000. “Perceptual causality and animacy.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4(8): 299–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01506-0
Spelke, E. S., and K. D. Kinzler. 2007. “Core knowledge.” Developmental Science 10: 89?96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00569.x
Sperber, D. 1996. Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sumby, W. H. 1963. “Word frequency and serial position effects.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 1: 443?450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(63)80030-4
Tweney, R. D., M. A. Upal, L. O. Gonce, D. J. Slone and K. Edwards. 2006. “The creative structuring of counterintuitive worlds.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 6(3?4): 3–4.
Upal, A. M. 2010. “An alternative view of the minimal counter-intuitiveness effect.” Journal of Cognitive Systems Research 11(2): 194?203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2009.08.003
Upal, A. M., L. O. Gonce, R. D. Tweney and D. J. Slone. 2007. “Contextualizing counterintuitiveness: How context affects comprehension and memorability of counterintuitive concepts.” Cognitive Science 31(3): 415?439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15326900701326568
Waddill, P. J, and M. A. McDaniel. 1998. “Distinctiveness effects in recall: Differential processing or privileged retrieval.” Memory and Cognition 26(1): 108?120. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03211374
Atran, S. and Norenzayan, A. 2004. “Religion’s evolutionary landscape: Counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27: 713?770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X04000172
Baddeley, A. D., N. Thomson and M. Buchanan. 1975. “Word length and the structure of short-term memory.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 14: 575–589. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(75)80045-4
Banerjee, K., O.S. Haque and E. S. Spelke. in press. “Melting lizards and crying mailboxes: Children’s preferential recall of minimally counterintuitive concepts.” Cognitive Science.
Barrett, J. L. 2000. “Exploring the natural foundations of religion.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4: 29?34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01419-9
Barrett, J. L. 2004. Why would anyone believe in god? Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Barrett, J. L. 2008. “Coding and Quantifying Counterintuitiveness in Religious Concepts: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 20: 308?338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006808X371806
Barrett, J. L. and A. H. Johnson. 2003. “The role of control in attributing intentional agency to inanimate objects.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 3(3): 208–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853703322336634
Barrett, J. L. and M. Nyhof. 2001. “Spreading non-natural concepts.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 1: 69?100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853701300063589
Bell, R., and A. Buchner. 2009. “Enhanced source memory for names of cheaters.” Evolutionary Psychology 7(2): 317?330.
Boyer, P. 1994. The Naturalness of Religious Ideas: A Cognitive Theory of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boyer, P. 2001. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic Books.
Boyer, P. and C. Ramble. 2001. “Cognitive templates for religious concepts: Cross-cultural evidence for recall of counter-intuitive representations.” Cognitive Science 25: 535?564. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog2504_2
Gervais, W. M., A. K. Willard, A. Norenzayean and J. Henrich. 2011. “The cultural transmission of faith: Why innate intuitions are necessary, but insufficient, to explain religious belief.” Religion 41(3): 389?410. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2011.604510
Gonce, L., M.A. Upal, D.J. Slone and R.D. Tweney. 2006. “Role of context in the recall of counterintuitive concepts.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 6(3?4): 521?547. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853706778554959
Gorman, A. M. 1961. “Recognition memory for nouns as a function of abstractedness and frequency.” Journal of Experimental Psychology 61: 23?39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0040561
Gouden, Y., and S. Nicolas. 2012. “The impact of processing time on the bizarreness and orthographic distinctiveness effects.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53(4):287?294. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2012.00945.x
Gray, K. and D. Wegner. 2010. “Blaming God for Our Pain: Human Suffering and the Divine Mind.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14(1): 9–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088868309350299
Guthrie, S. 1980. “A cognitive theory of religion.” Current Anthropology 21: 181–203.
Guthrie, S. 1993. Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/202429
Hall, J. 1954. “Learning as a function of word-frequency.” American Journal of Psychology 67: 138–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1418080
Harmon-Vukic, M., M.A. Upal and K.J. Sheenan. 2012. “Understanding the memory advantage of counterintuitive concepts.” Brain, Religion, and Behavior 2(2): 121?139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2012.672816
Heider, F., and M. Simmel. 1944. “An experimental study of apparent behaviour.” American Journal of Psychology 13: 243–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1416950
Hunt, R.R. 1995. “The subtlety of distinctiveness: What von Restorff really did.” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 2: 105–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03214414
Iman, S. and C. L. Richman. 1991. “Is the bizarreness effect a special case of sentence reorganization?” Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 29: 429–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03333962
Jacoby, L.L., and F.I.M. Craik. 1979. “Effects of elaboration of processing at encoding and retrieval: Trace distinctiveness and recovery of initial context.” In Levels of processing and human memory, edited by L. S. Cermak and F. I. M. Craik, 1?21. Hitlsdale, NJ: Lawrence Ertbaum Associates.
Lawson, E T., and R.N. McCauley. 1990. Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mealey, L., C. Daood and M. Krage. 1996. “Enhanced memory for faces of cheaters.” Ethology and Sociobiology 17: 119–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(95)00131-X
Michotte, A. 1962. The perception of causality. Andover, MA: Methuen.
Norenzayan, A., and S. Atran. 2004. “Cognitive and emotional processes in the cultural transmission of natural and nonnatural beliefs.” In The Psychological Foundations of Culture, edited by M. Schaller and C. Crandall, 149?169. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Norenzayan, A., S. Atran, J. Faulkner and M. Schaller. 2006. “Memory and mystery: The cultural selection of minimally counterintuitive narratives.” Cognitive Science 30: 531?553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0000_68
Ranganath C., and G. Rainer. 2003. “Neural mechanisms for detecting and remembering novel events.” Nature Review Neuroscience 4: 193–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrn1052
Schmidt, S. R. 1991. “Can we have a distinctive theory of memory?” Memory and Cognition 19: 523–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03197149
Scholl, B. J., and P. D. Tremoulet. 2000. “Perceptual causality and animacy.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4(8): 299–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01506-0
Spelke, E. S., and K. D. Kinzler. 2007. “Core knowledge.” Developmental Science 10: 89?96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00569.x
Sperber, D. 1996. Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sumby, W. H. 1963. “Word frequency and serial position effects.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 1: 443?450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(63)80030-4
Tweney, R. D., M. A. Upal, L. O. Gonce, D. J. Slone and K. Edwards. 2006. “The creative structuring of counterintuitive worlds.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 6(3?4): 3–4.
Upal, A. M. 2010. “An alternative view of the minimal counter-intuitiveness effect.” Journal of Cognitive Systems Research 11(2): 194?203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2009.08.003
Upal, A. M., L. O. Gonce, R. D. Tweney and D. J. Slone. 2007. “Contextualizing counterintuitiveness: How context affects comprehension and memorability of counterintuitive concepts.” Cognitive Science 31(3): 415?439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15326900701326568
Waddill, P. J, and M. A. McDaniel. 1998. “Distinctiveness effects in recall: Differential processing or privileged retrieval.” Memory and Cognition 26(1): 108?120. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03211374
Published
2014-03-20
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Articles
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Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Porubanova-Norquist, M., Shaw, D. J., & Xygalatas, D. (2014). Minimal-Counterintuitiveness Revisited: Effects of cultural and ontological violations on concept memorability. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 1(2), 181-192. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.v1i2.181
