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Researchers Have Created a Font That Can Boost Your Memory

10/14/2018

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Many of us spent our college years sitting in countless lectures accompanied by uninspiring PowerPoint presentations. The notes we took were equally uninspiring and weren’t remembered.

It’s a problem that doesn’t just affect students. Have you ever caught yourself re-reading the same article twice? To make text easier to remember, Melbourne-based designers partnered with behavioral scientists at RMIT University and have designed a font that makes reading more difficult.

Ironically named “Sans Forgetica,” the font is more difficult to read than most typefaces – and that’s by design. The ‘desirable difficulty’ you experience when reading information formatted in Sans Forgetica prompts your brain to engage in deeper processing.

To make your brain work harder to retain information, the font is legible yet broken and disconnected. Since chunks of words are removed, the brain is required to put more effort into reading, which only takes a fraction of a second – but this font seems to be working.

A recent study involving 400 university students found a small increase in memory retention when reading text in Sans Forgetica compared to Arial. The participants reading Sans Forgetica were found to remember 57% of the text, and only 50% when reading in Arial.

Although the font has promising statistics, it has limitations according to lecturer and Sans Forgetica co-creator, Stephen Banham. “You wouldn’t want novels printed in it. It would probably induce a headache,” Banham said.
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It’s unlikely you’ll want to use it as part of your every-day reading, Sans Forgetica could be a handy type-tool for stressed-out students. You can download this free font here.

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    Author

    Rick Richardson, CPA, CITP, CGMA

    Rick is the editor of the weekly newsletter, Technology This Week. You can subscribe to it by visiting the website.

    Rick is also the Managing Partner of Richardson Media & Technologies, LLC. Prior to forming his current company, he had a 28-year career in technology with Ernst & Young, the last twelve years of which he served as National Director of Technology.

    Mr. Richardson has been named to the "Technology 100"- the annual honors list of the 100 key achievers in technology in America. He has also been honored by the American Institute of CPAs with two Lifetime Achievement awards and a Special Career Recognition Award for his contributions to the profession in the field of technology.

    In 2012, Rick was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame by CPA Practice Advisor Magazine. He has also been named to the 100 most influential individuals in the accounting profession in America by Accounting Today magazine.

    In 2017, Rick was inducted as a Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achiever, a registry of professionals who have excelled in their fields for many years and achieved greatness in their industry.

    He is a sought after speaker around the world, providing his annual forecast of future technology trends to thousands of business executives, professionals, community leaders, educators and students.

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