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Post by Shane for Wax on Nov 27, 2011 6:26:04 GMT -5
We’ve all experienced it: The frustration of entering a room and forgetting what we were going to do. Or get. Or find. New research from University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky suggests that passing through doorways is the cause of these memory lapses. “Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains. “Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.” The study was published recently in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. source: newsinfo.nd.edu/news/27476-walking-through-doorways-causes-forgetting-new-research-showsWell this certainly explains it... I guess? Brains are weird.
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Post by Vene on Nov 27, 2011 10:53:47 GMT -5
That makes absolute perfect sense to me.
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Post by Star Cluster on Nov 27, 2011 12:51:22 GMT -5
Yep, makes sense. Often, when this happens to me, I'll either have to go back in my mind to the first room, think of what I was doing, and go through the mental process to remember why I went to the other room, or I have to physically go back to the room I exited to remember.
It happens far too often for there not to be something to this.
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Post by Vene on Nov 27, 2011 12:54:19 GMT -5
The biochemistry fits, memories are not formed in a vacuum, all your senses are put into them as associations. If you lose the associations it gets harder to bring up the memory. Incidentally, this is why it's a good idea to always sit in the same seat for a class and why smells can trigger very old memories.
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Post by DeadpanDoubter on Nov 27, 2011 13:37:56 GMT -5
The biochemistry fits, memories are not formed in a vacuum, all your senses are put into them as associations. If you lose the associations it gets harder to bring up the memory. Incidentally, this is why it's a good idea to always sit in the same seat for a class and why smells can trigger very old memories. Also why I've been told to suck a mint while studying, then pop one in before a test.
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Post by MaybeNever on Nov 27, 2011 14:41:32 GMT -5
The biochemistry fits, memories are not formed in a vacuum, all your senses are put into them as associations. If you lose the associations it gets harder to bring up the memory. Incidentally, this is why it's a good idea to always sit in the same seat for a class and why smells can trigger very old memories. This is why one of the philosophical precursors to psychology was a British doctrine called Associationism. Smells are particularly good at triggering memories, though, basically because the nasal input passes through the limbic system where emotion originates. The role of emotion in memory formation is pretty substantial.
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Post by Old Viking on Nov 27, 2011 15:34:44 GMT -5
I want to respond to this, but I forget what I intended to say.
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Post by Shane for Wax on Nov 27, 2011 17:41:10 GMT -5
Oh it makes sense. It's just... weird. And frustrating. I don't like not remembering.
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Post by Dragon Zachski on Nov 27, 2011 18:28:39 GMT -5
That explains why I remember stuff in the bathroom and then forget it as soon as I leave :V
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Post by Radiation on Nov 27, 2011 20:02:32 GMT -5
Oh so I'm not the only one that has this problem.
I don't know how many times I'd get up to do something, and then forget what it was that I was going to do.
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Post by Napoleon the Clown on Nov 27, 2011 22:24:27 GMT -5
That explains why I remember stuff in the bathroom and then forget it as soon as I leave :V Actually that one is because you shit out the memory.
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Post by big_electron on Nov 27, 2011 23:06:32 GMT -5
That explains why I remember stuff in the bathroom and then forget it as soon as I leave :V Actually that one is because you shit out the memory. No, I think that's why people read in the bathroom. I sometimes find a magazine or newspaper in there. If you find a Playboy, er...I read it for the articles!
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Nov 28, 2011 14:39:13 GMT -5
That explains why I remember stuff in the bathroom and then forget it as soon as I leave :V It does not, however, explain why going to the bathroom for any length of time somehow causes me to figure out whatever problem I'm working on.
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Post by DeadpanDoubter on Nov 28, 2011 18:20:31 GMT -5
I think Freud could help ya out there, Lithp.
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Post by Vene on Nov 28, 2011 18:21:59 GMT -5
That explains why I remember stuff in the bathroom and then forget it as soon as I leave :V It does not, however, explain why going to the bathroom for any length of time somehow causes me to figure out whatever problem I'm working on. That is because this phenomenon has a different cause.
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