Friday, October 19, 2012

Well, finally, an explanation of why I can't remember things.  An explanation that doesn't blame me. My daughter had this on Twitter.
Check out what Reader's Digest has to say about Doors.

Doors

Ever walk into a room with some purpose in mind, only to completely forget what that purpose was? Turns out, doors themselves are to blame for these strange memory lapses. Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what's known as an event boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next. Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room and prepares a blank slate for the new locale.
So all we have to do is:
Stay in one room
Remove all the doorways in our house.
Live outside
Or realize if the doorway didn't make us forget something else would have.


6 comments:

  1. I"m willing to grasp at most any explanation for this issue! I have noticed that returning to the starting point often jogs my memory as to why I was headed into a certain room.

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  2. I read that explanation some time ago and immediately adopted it ;) ... not that I've actually made any adjustments to my apartment, but I make frequent use of the excuse!

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  3. I can handle doors - it's going upstairs that floors me on the memory front! I dash up full of purpose and then can't remember what I went up for :) :)

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  4. Who knew?! I wrote my MA thesis on the meaning of doors and doorways in Roman architecture, but I never came across any mention of memory/forgetfulness - unless, of course, I forgot about it once I read it...

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  5. I think stairs have the same effect, which is very tiring.

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  6. It can be cupboard or fridge doors for me as well as room doors, but like Rowan and Lucille the stairs are the worst:)

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