The universal decay of collective memory and attention
The universal decay of collective memory and attention
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DOI：
10.1038/s41562-018-0474-5
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发表时间：
2019-01-01
影响因子：
29.9
通讯作者：
Hidalgo, Cesar A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Candia, Cristian;Jara-Figueroa, C.;Hidalgo, Cesar A.
集体记忆和注意通过两个渠道维持：口头交流（交际记忆）和信息的物理记录（文化记忆）。在这里，我们使用学术文章和专利的引用数据，以及歌曲、电影和传记获得的在线关注数据，来描述文化产品获得的关注的时间衰减。我们表明，一旦我们隔离了衰退的时间维度，文化产品所受到的关注就会按照普遍的双指数函数衰减。我们通过提出一个基于交际和文化记忆的数学模型来解释这种普遍性，该模型比以前提出的对数正态和指数模型更适合数据。我们的研究结果表明，传记在我们的交流记忆中保留的时间最长（20-30年），音乐最短（约5.6年）。这些发现表明，文化产品所受到的平均关注遵循普遍的双指数函数衰减。
Collective memory and attention are sustained by two channels: oral communication (communicative memory) and the physical recording of information (cultural memory). Here, we use data on the citation of academic articles and patents, and on the online attention received by songs, movies and biographies, to describe the temporal decay of the attention received by cultural products. We show that, once we isolate the temporal dimension of the decay, the attention received by cultural products decays following a universal biexponential function. We explain this universality by proposing a mathematical model based on communicative and cultural memory, which fits the data better than previously proposed log-normal and exponential models. Our results reveal that biographies remain in our communicative memory the longest (20-30 years) and music the shortest (about 5.6 years). These findings show that the average attention received by cultural products decays following a universal biexponential function.