Information Retrieval during Free Listing Is Biased by Memory: Evidence from Medicinal Plants.

ABSTRACT: Free listing is a methodological tool that is widely used in various scientific disciplines. A typical assumption of this approach is that individual lists reflect a subset of total knowledge and that the first items listed are the most culturally important. However, little is known about how cognitive processes influence free lists. In this study, we assess how recent memory of use, autonoetic and anoetic memory, and long-term associative memory can affect the composition and order of items in free lists and evaluate whether free lists indicate the most important items. Based on a model of local knowledge about medicinal plants and their therapeutic targets, which was collected via individual semi-structured interviews, we classify each item recorded in free lists according to the last ti

SUBMITTER: Sousa DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5096679 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature