A museum heist — connection between motivation and memory?

Quick question: Have you ever planned or executed a museum heist?

If yes — why are you sharing that information on Medium?

If no — you can pretend to do this in a fascinating new study on motivation and memory!

Researchers used the motivation of either planning or executing a museum heist as a way to check memory. The study showed that participants planning the museum heist remembered more about all paintings, but participants executing the museum heist remembered more about the *high-value* paintings.

For a lovely summary and further commentary by Andrew Watkins of Learning and the Brain, check out the link below!

Reframing Motivation: Urgent vs. Interesting

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Dr. Nathan Belcher

Founder of "The Learning Engine" -- Helping people learn and grow through the principles of learning. W&M: B.S '08, M.A.Ed '10, U of SC: Ed.D. '17