Left your keys on the kitchen counter again? No problem. Just go and get them. Walk through the house, into the kitchen, and what was it you needed to do again? Why are you in here? In less than thirty seconds, you’ve managed to forget the entire purpose of your errand.
Have you ever had that feeling of walking into a room, and having no idea what you're doing there? This forgetful phenomenon has a name. It is referred to as the Doorway Effect. This sort of forgetfulness isn’t due to laziness or apathy. It actually means that your brain is in good working order.
Scientists used
to believe that memory was like a filing cabinet. You have an experience, and
it gets its own little file in your brain. Later, you can go back and open the
file, which is unchanged and where it should be. It’s a nice, tidy image, but
it’s wrong. Your brain is much more complicated and sophisticated than that.
It’s more like a super-high-powered computer, with dozens of tasks and applications
running at once.
It was observed
that whenever participants walked through an open doorway, their memory
performance was poorer than the times when they covered the same distance
within the same room. The Doorway Effect shows how
memories are linked to the location we are in. Often things you haven’t thought
about for years will burst into your head.
Researchers
also tested the Doorway Effect using real rooms. Participants travelled in a
real-world environment. The same observations were recorded as people had a
hard time recalling the previous object once they passed through a door.
“One
of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.” (Rita
Mae Brown)
Our
brain is far more sophisticated and complicated, and as recent studies have
shown, it possesses the ability to change throughout an individual’s life. Human memories
are episodic (as opposed to being clear, linear narratives) which means that
they are split into segments and hugely depend on the person who is forming
them. For instance, how you recall a particular incident will most likely
be different from how another person recalls the exact same incident.
Is there a way to avoid
the Doorway Effect? Try this idea if you struggle with this. Write yourself a
list (manually or electronically) for each errand you need to do in the
appropriate room to help you remember the required task. Hopefully, this will give
you some assistance in your time of forgetfulness. The
moral of the Doorway Effect is to protect your memories.“Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away. Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.” (Professor Gabriel Radvansky)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“The Doorway Effect: Why Do We Forget What We Were Supposed To Do After
We Enter a Room?” by
·
“Why Do We Forget What We’re
Doing the Minute We Enter a Room?” by Kate Horowitz
·
“Why Walking Through A Door Makes You Forget” (http://www.spring.org.uk/2016/10/doorway-effect.php)
·
What Is "The Doorway Effect?" Here's Why You Can Never
Remember What You Meant To Do When You Entered the Room by Marissa Higgins
Inspired by a conversation on 99.3FM (Air 1) radio
Inspired by a conversation on 99.3FM (Air 1) radio
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