A quick test: How strong is your working memory?

When a new thought or perception enters our head, it doesn’t immediately get stashed away in long-term memory. Rather it exists in a temporary limbo, in what’s know as working memory, a collection of brain systems that hold on to whatever is rattling around in our consciousness at the present moment.

Without looking back and rereading it, try to repeat the first three words of this sentence to yourself.

Without looking back

Easy enough.
Now, without looking back, try to repeat the first three words of the sentence before that. If you find that quite a bit harder, it’s because that sentence has already been dropped by your working memory.
_ _ _

The above is a quick excerpt from an engaging and informative book I just finished reading entitled Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer.

Question #1: So how did you do on the above test?
(Don’t panic, you are not alone. Most people are like that.)
Question #2: Can the above test teach us something about marketing?
My 2¢: Whatever you want to communicate to people, you must learn to do it simply.

Case in point: An old ad from Volkswagen.