12/05/2014

How Long Does a President’s Legacy Last?

7:42 minutes

If you try to remember all of the U.S. presidents, how many can you name? Most likely you’ll remember Obama, Bush, Clinton…but what about Carter and Coolidge? Psychologist Henry Roediger has tested the presidential recall of students over a span of forty years to study how collective memory is formed and forgotten. The findings appear in a recent edition of Science. Plus, SciFri conducted its own informal test on passers-by in Times Square. Here’s what we found:

Segment Guests

Henry Roediger

Henry Roediger is a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri.

Meet the Producer

About Alexa Lim

Alexa Lim was a senior producer for Science Friday. Her favorite stories involve space, sound, and strange animal discoveries.