People with better memories may have better romantic relationships, study suggests

Common topics of marital disagreement are money, sex and time spent together. None of this will surprise anyone who has been in a long-term relationship.

But a new study indicates that a cognitive ability may help to explain why some couples are more successful in resolving their differences. University of North Carolina Greensboro psychologist Levi Baker and his colleagues report that spouses who were high in working memory capacity had better memory for each other’s statements in discussions about problems. In turn, these couples showed greater progress in resolving their problems over time. The study suggests that it’s not just dogged commitment that gets couples through rough spots, but a cognitive factor that directly affects the quality of partners’ communication with each other.

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[I]f you don’t attend to what your partner is saying when discussing a problem, you will remember it poorly, if at all. Making matters worse, in the absence of an accurate memory for the conversation, you may remember what you think your partner said rather than what they actually said, leading to a false memory. So listen carefully to your lover.

Read full, original post: How Research on Working Memory Can Improve Your Romantic Relationship