Geschäftsreise19 Sep 2003

Fair enough to the second part (that's a good enough reason).
However I'm not aware of any serious research that suggest the first (I would appreciate any contrary references?) however there is a laundry list of research to support the idea that long term memories are formed only after a novel stimulus:

Here are some references if you are interested:

Cortical cholinergic activity is related to the novelty of the stimulus. - Miranda MI et al. (Neuroscience Letters)

Bidirectional modulation of long-term potentiation by novelty-exploration in rat dentate gyrus. - Straube T et al. (Brain Res)

The role of identified neurotransmitter systems in the response of insular cortex to unfamiliar taste: activation of ERK1-2 and formation of a memory trace. - Berman DE et al. (J Neurosci)

Human hippocampus associates information in memory.
Henke K et al. (PNAS)

Contribution of human hippocampal region to novelty detection.
Knight R. (Nature)

(I'm not trying to be an ass here, I'm just having a discussion and trying my best to keep you honest. There are people with more experience than both you or I who don't know everything that's out there in the literature.)