# Ever Enter a Room & Forget Why You Went There?

Category: Let's talk

## Post 1 by blbobby (Ooo you're gona like this!) on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2011 19:02:02

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/11/22/ever-enter-a-room-forget-why-you-went-there-blame-the-doorway/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+80beats+%2880beats%29
Ever Enter a Room & Forget Why You Went There? Blame The Doorway.
New research suggests the mere act of walking through a doorway helps people forget, which could explain many millions of confusing moments that happen
each day around the world. A
study published recently
in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology found that participants who walked through doorways in a virtual reality environment were significantly
more likely to forget memories formed in another room, compared with those who traveled the same distance but crossed no thresholds.
Notre Dame University researcher Gabriel Radvansky
says
doorways serve as a type of “
event boundary
” that the brain uses to separate and store memories. When you enter a new room, your brain updates its understanding of what’s going on in the new environment,
which takes some mental effort. This parsing of memory, albeit subtle, leaves the information encoded in the other room (i.e. “Now I’m going to my room
to fetch some knickers”) less available in your new location.
Recognizing this tendency could help you avoid future lapses. Or you could take Radvansky’s advice, as (jokingly—I think)
told to Postmedia News:
”Doorways are bad. Avoid them at all costs.”
Reference: Gabriel A. Radvansky, Sabine A. Krawietz & Andrea K. Tamplin. Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Further explorations. The Quarterly
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Volume 64, Issue 8, August 2011, pages 1632-1645. DOI:

## Post 2 by turricane (happiness and change are choices ) on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2011 19:16:10

oh puh-lease. exhaustion, aging, confusion, stress, distraction, and not feeling well are far more valid reasons why we forget stuff after entering a room. these dudes are in serious need of a life. What needs to be studied is why they feel this is limportant to spend their life time on. is this what we want our kids to learn in grad school?
Of course i've only done the forgetting thing once. It was humiliating. i walked into F.Y.E, went up to the counter, and asked the sales person if they had and then my mind went blank. i'm standing there with my mouth hanging open and this totally stupid look on my face. I said "sorry i forget what i wanted. have a nice day." then i ran out of there.

## Post 3 by laced-unlaced (Account disabled) on Thursday, 24-Nov-2011 6:06:59

thanks for the artickle bob:)
it happens to me loads.

## Post 4 by blbobby (Ooo you're gona like this!) on Thursday, 24-Nov-2011 10:02:19

I was going to post an update to the article, but I forgot what I wanted to say. &LT;lol>
Bob

## Post 5 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Thursday, 24-Nov-2011 14:51:47

I agree with poster 2. I mean, give me a break!

## Post 6 by Freedomlocks (Veteran Zoner) on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2011 21:49:45

and there was me thinking it was all that pot.
thanks bob

## Post 7 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2011 23:15:44

oh dear.

## Post 8 by burak (Zone BBS Addict) on Thursday, 01-Dec-2011 4:16:48

I haven't lived such a thing before.

## Post 9 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Thursday, 01-Dec-2011 13:51:21

Crazy ay?

## Post 10 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Thursday, 01-Dec-2011 19:16:42

I always took it for being on constant information overlod, especially the older you get, the more weight of responsibility you carry, etc.
However, this is kinda interesting. I'm not up on psychology, but I wonder if this is hardware or software? Did it evolve in us before or after we started creating shelters? I guess its counterpart would have to be tested on other primates to see how they respond in their natural environment.
But back to how I originally fent: I saw a documentary once on just how much data the primitive peoples typicaly remember: huge, lengthy tales, oral traditions that remain remarkably intact, and details about large distances of land. One anthropologist basically said the simple fact is, they don't have as much to keep track of as we do, and that we humans will operate at capacity storing one thing or another.
Human memory does appear to be finite, and is certainly far less efficient than the memory we can ourselves create with cilicon. Before you nature people get too upset, consider how a computer can on cue look up any piece of data on its hard drive or in its memory at any given time. No need for laborious regurgitation and review to make it happen. But you can't randomly access your Spanish vocabulary from 8th grade, no matter how badly you need it right now. That's true whether 8th grade was 6 months ago or a quarter century or more past.
I still maintain biologically-constructed memory is remarkable in its leaky inefficiency and flawed asymmetric construction. In other words, if it were digital memory, you certainly wouldn't pay for it.

## Post 11 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Friday, 02-Dec-2011 12:15:02

The difference is, the human brain has a much faster processing speed and can hold more. I don't think the authors of the article did much research but I must admit it made me stop and think.

## Post 12 by forereel (Just posting.) on Saturday, 03-Dec-2011 2:00:35

Well I think. What was I gonna write?

## Post 13 by blbobby (Ooo you're gona like this!) on Saturday, 03-Dec-2011 8:44:45

You told me, but I don't remember what you said.
Was it "yuck?" or something like that?
Bob

## Post 14 by forereel (Just posting.) on Saturday, 03-Dec-2011 13:21:52

Might have had to do with something about the vive of all the femaile power in a room and its ability to distract a man so that he forgets why he came. Hmm! Maybe I should write an article on this, if I can remember long enough?

## Post 15 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Monday, 05-Dec-2011 12:46:28

hormone overload? Interesting.