{"id":71701,"date":"2024-02-15T00:11:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T05:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=71701"},"modified":"2024-02-15T00:11:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T05:11:10","slug":"why-forgetting-is-a-normal-function-of-memory-and-when-to-worry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-forgetting-is-a-normal-function-of-memory-and-when-to-worry\/","title":{"rendered":"Why forgetting is a normal function of memory \u2013 and when to worry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Forgetting in our day to day lives may feel annoying or, as we get older, a little frightening. But it is an entirely normal part of memory \u2013 enabling us to move on or make space for new information.<\/p>\n

In fact, our memories\u00a0aren\u2019t as reliable<\/a>\u00a0as we may think. But what level of forgetting is actually normal? Is it OK to\u00a0mix up the names of countries<\/a>, as US president Joe Biden recently did? Let\u2019s take a look at the evidence.<\/p>\n

When we\u00a0remember something<\/a>, our brains need to learn it (encode), keep it safe (store) and recover it when needed (retrieve). Forgetting can occur at any point in this process.<\/p>\n

When sensory information first comes in to the brain we can\u2019t process it all. We instead\u00a0use our attention<\/a>\u00a0to filter the information so that what\u2019s important can be identified and processed. That process means that when we are encoding our experiences we are mostly encoding the things we are paying attention to.<\/p>\n

If someone introduces themselves at a dinner party at the same time as we\u2019re paying attention to something else, we never encode their name. It\u2019s a failure of memory (forgetting), but it\u2019s entirely\u00a0normal and very common<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Habits and structure, such as always putting our keys in the same place so we don\u2019t have to encode their location, can help us get around this problem.<\/p>\n

Rehearsal is also important for memory. If we don\u2019t use it,\u00a0we lose it<\/a>. Memories that last the longest are the ones we\u2019ve rehearsed and retold many times (although we often adapt the memory with every retelling, and likely remember the last rehearsal rather than the actual event itself).<\/p>\n

In the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus\u00a0taught people nonsense syllables<\/a>\u00a0they had never heard before, and looked at how much they remembered over time. He showed that, without rehearsal, most of our memory fades within a day or two.<\/p>\n

However, if people rehearsed the syllables by having them repeated at regular intervals, this drastically increased the number of syllables that could be remembered for more than just a day.<\/p>\n

This need for rehearsal can be another cause of every day forgetting, however. When we go to the supermarket we might encode where we park the car, but when we enter the shop we are busy rehearsing other things we need to remember (our shopping list). As a result, we may forget the location of the car.<\/p>\n

However, this shows us another feature of forgetting. We can forget specific information,\u00a0but remember the gist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When we walk out of the shop and realise that we don\u2019t remember where we parked the car, we can probably remember whether it was to the left or right of the shop door, on the edge of the car park or towards the centre though. So rather than having to walk round the entire car park to find it, we can search a relatively defined area.<\/p>\n

The impact of ageing<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As people get older, they\u00a0worry about their memory more<\/a>. It\u2019s true that our forgetting becomes more pronounced, but that doesn\u2019t always mean there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

The longer we live, the more experiences we have, and the more we have to remember. Not only that, but the experiences have much in common, meaning\u00a0it can become tricky<\/a>\u00a0to separate these events in our memory.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve only ever experienced a holiday on a beach in Spain once you will remember it with great clarity. However, if you\u2019ve been on many holidays to Spain, in different cities at different times, then remembering whether something happened in the first holiday you took to Barcelona or the second, or whether your brother came with you on the holiday to Majorca or Ibiza, becomes more challenging.<\/p>\n

Overlap between memories, or interference,\u00a0gets in the way<\/a>\u00a0of retrieving information. Imagine filing documents on your computer. As you start the process, you have a clear filing system where you can easily place each document so you know where to find it.<\/p>\n

But as more and more documents come in, it gets hard to decide which of the folders it belongs to. You may also start putting lots of documents in one folder because they all relate to that item.<\/p>\n

This means that, over time, it becomes hard to retrieve the right document when you need it either because you can\u2019t work out where you put it, or because you know where it should be but there are lots of other things there to search through.<\/p>\n

It can be disruptive to not forget. Post traumatic stress disorder is an example of a situation in which people can not forget. The memory is persistent, doesn\u2019t fade and often interrupts daily life.<\/p>\n

There can be similar experiences with persistent memories in grief or depression, conditions which can\u00a0make it harder to forget<\/a>\u00a0negative information. Here, forgetting would be extremely useful.<\/p>\n

Forgetting doesn\u2019t always impair decision making<\/strong><\/h4>\n

So forgetting things is common, and as we get older it becomes more common. But forgetting names or dates, as Biden has,\u00a0doesn\u2019t necessarily impair decision making<\/a>. Older people can have deep knowledge and\u00a0good intuition<\/a>, which can help counteract such memory lapses.<\/p>\n

Of course, at times forgetting can be a sign of a bigger problem and might suggest you need to speak to the doctor. Asking the same questions over and over again is a sign that forgetting is more than just a problem of being distracted when you tried to encode it.<\/p>\n

Similarly, forgetting your way round very familiar areas is another sign that you are struggling to use cues in the environment to remind you of how to get around. And while forgetting the name of someone at dinner is normal, forgetting how to use your fork and knife isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, forgetting isn\u2019t something to fear \u2013 in ourselves or others. It is usually extreme when it\u2019s a sign things are going wrong.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Alexander Easton is a Professor of Psychology at Durham University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forgetting in our day to day lives may feel annoying or, as we get older, a little frightening. But it is an entirely normal part of memory \u2013 enabling us to move on or make space for new information. In fact, our memories\u00a0aren\u2019t as reliable\u00a0as we may think. But what level of forgetting is actually […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[434826],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-71701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-forgetting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy forgetting is a normal function of memory \u2013 and when to worry - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-forgetting-is-a-normal-function-of-memory-and-when-to-worry\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why forgetting is a normal function of memory \u2013 and when to worry - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forgetting in our day to day lives may feel annoying or, as we get older, a little frightening. 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