Research · Agents with a life · Oct 6, 2026

An agent that remembers what a person said

Met1,911 people, three panels never used

The test at a glance

What it tests: Accuracy against reality: a person's own answers, four years later.
Data: General Social Survey panels from 2006, 2008 and 2010 (Release 6); seeded test halves of 1,911 people.
Held out: The test halves' wave-3 answers on happiness, finances and health.
Compared against: A persona built from the first interview.
Bar: Pooled over three panels and four questions: a lower Brier score, with the 95% interval of the difference above zero.
Result: 0.5965 against 0.6115 (interval 0.011 to 0.019): met.

An agent that remembers what a person said predicts their answers four years later better than a persona: 2.5% better in the registered score (0.5965 against 0.6115, lower is better; interval 0.011 to 0.019), in every panel and on every question. Its memory holds what happened to the person and what they said about related things, never their answers to the questions scored. Registered before any answer was read; 1,911 people in the 2006, 2008 and 2010 General Social Survey panels, never used before.

Protocol, result and scorer

Protocol Scorer Result

An agent that remembers what a person said

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