’Clean’ your memory to pick a winner

Predicting the winner of a sporting event with accuracy close to that of a statistical computer programme could be possible with proper training, according to researchers. In a study published today, experiment participants who had been trained on statistically idealised data vastly improved their ability to predict the outcome of a baseball game. In normal situations, the brain selects a limited number of memories to use as evidence to guide decisions. As real-world events do not always have the most likely outcome, retrieved memories can provide misleading information at the time of a decision. Now, researchers at UCL and the University of Montreal have found a way to train the brain to accurately predict the outcome of an event, for example a baseball game, by giving subjects idealised scenarios that always conform to statistical probability. Dr Bradley Love (UCL Department of Cognition, Perception and Brain Sciences), lead author of study, said: "Providing people with idealized situations, as opposed to actual outcomes, 'cleans' their memory and provides a stock of good quality evidence for the brain to use." - Providing people with idealized situations, as opposed to actual outcomes, 'cleans' their memory and provides a stock of good quality evidence for the brain to use. Dr Bradley Love In the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers programmed computers to use all available statistics to form a decision - making them more likely to predict the correct outcome.