The Science Behind Forgetfulness

Have you ever entered a room only to forget why? Or completely forgot where you put your keys? If we knew more about the science behind forgetfulness, then maybe we could keep these frustrating occurrences down to a minimum! Comprehension aside, long-term memory is the most important element in transforming information into knowledge. In order to make new information stick, we need our long-term memory to be robust and healthy. We’ll cover how to strengthen your long-term memory later (if we remember to). But, firstly, what’s the science behind memory, forgetfulness and recalling? How Are Memories Made? Your brain categorizes memories into three different areas: 1. Sensory Memory As our senses are always receptive to what’s happening around us, it would be impractical to store split-second sights, sounds and smells in our long-term memory. Therefore, sensory memories are stored in our temporal lobe. It’s then passed to the short-term memory… 2. Short-term Memory Cognitive psychologists believe short-term memory covers the most recent 15-30 seconds of your experience only. In fact, you are using your short-term memory right now. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be able to form a relation between this sentence and the previous one. Short-term memory is stored in the prefrontal lobe. 3. Long-term Memory Long-term memory is where we need our learning to be stored. When we revise or recall information, it’s transferred from the short-term memory to the long-term memory via the hippocampus. When the info is recalled over and over again, the hippocampus is no longer needed. This is when the cortex takes over and produces what we know as a memory. Why Do We Forget? The reasons as to why we forget things differ. Here are the three most common explanations why we can never remember where we parked the car or indeed, […]

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