Is trivia worth knowing?

With UK quiz Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? crowning its first jackpot winner, BBC News Online ask if being a trivia buff is really the fast track to riches?

Knowing that Duffelcoats are named after a town in Belgium may have seen Judith Keppel on the way to fame and a £1m fortune - but packing your mind with facts may not be the route to success in everyday life.

Good general knowledge? Close, but no cigar

Psychologist Ron Bracey, an expert in memory and intelligence, says the performance of contestants on quizshows is no indication of their ability to get on in the outside world.

"Judith Keppel seems to be a well-educated person, but she was lucky that the questions she was asked fell into her sphere of knowledge."

Had Mrs Keppel, a distant cousin of Camilla Parker-Bowles, been asked to name the winner of the 1978 FA Cup she may not have walked off with the £1m cheque.

Not book smart

"With quiz questions it's either 'you know it or you don't'. In your working life, competence is more important than general knowledge," says Mr Bracey.

TV programmes such as BBC One's Castaway - which tests people's ability to fend for themselves on a remote island - are better showcases for intelligence, he says.

"On Castaway many of the 'intellectuals' struggle to cope with a crisis, while more adaptable types can construct an electric generator from a few rusty cans."

'Facts? I'm better with figures'

Thinking quickly and creatively are surer routes to success than memorising "factoids" - no matter what the pub quiz bores tell you.

Mr Bracey says modern "information overload" has further undermined the value of general knowledge.

"In many professions, and in life in general, there is too much knowledge to hold in your head. It's knowing where to find the knowledge that really counts."

While on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? the only back up you have for a your own grey matter are an audience poll and a phone call to a friend - when the rest of us are stumped for an answer we have a world of reference material.

Computer memory

"I understand that many young people in the United States now consider the internet to be part of their memory," says Mr Bracey.

Those aged 18-25 have an "appalling" general knowledge - less than 10% could name a Charles Dickens novel - according to a Guardian/ICM poll.

However, pollsters found young people could find the data required "almost instinctively".

'Who the Dickens is that?'

Professor Patrick Rabbitt, head Age and Cognitive Performance Research Centre at the University of Manchester, says the relationship between intelligence and general knowledge is complex.

"Is there a link? Yes and no. People who are highly intelligent learn a lot of things quickly. Over a life an intelligent person is likely to amass a large general knowledge."

However, before you pat yourself on the back for being able to recite the result of every Grand National, Professor Rabbitt says there are limits to this correlation.

Plane stupid

"I was rather a stupid schoolboy - but growing up during the war - I could name every warplane, Allied, German and Japanese."

Professor Rabbitt is sceptical of certain techniques supposed to increase the power of your memory.

'I'll name those planes in one'

"With some extremely dull practice you can learn to remember certain things - though normally the things which these techniques are suited to. You'll find yourself boring people at parties, asking them to give you 40 digit numbers to memorise."

There is some hope for those wanting to translate their encyclopedic knowledge of fresh water fish into something a bit more useful.

"As you gain knowledge you tend to spot patterns in that knowledge. In essence, the more you know, the quicker it becomes to learn new things."

Brainbox

Jamming you head full of facts is a waste of time if you cannot retrieve them at the right time - especially when a £1m is at stake.

American researchers now think that losing the answer to a question is more to do with our mouths not our memories.

It's not what you know, it's where you go to find out

That "on the tip of my tongue" experience is due to our failing to put a "word sound" to a thought.

We may know Eleanor of Aquitaine was married to Henry II, we may be able to visualise him, but be unable to say his name without a verbal nudge.

Such "senior moments", as American psychologists call them, can prove as embarrassing as they are infuriating.

Last May, Chief Inspector Clive Giles was going great guns on the Radio 4 quiz Mastermind, until he was asked to name the current Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

"Er, pass."