Walking Through Doorways and Its Effect on Our Memories

You know that feeling you get when you get up from whatever you're doing and walk to the kitchen, only to realize that you can't remember what it is you went into the kitchen for? That effect is what we're exploring in today's FactRoulette!

Studies have shown that human beings experience an odd effect that kicks in specifically when we walk through a doorway or other passage into a new room or environment. When we walk into a new room, experiment after experiment and as well as anecdotal evidence has shown that we frequently forget whatever was on our minds before doing so. But why does this happen?

Walking through doorways has a peculiar effect on the human brain.

The answer can be found in years of evolution. Our minds have evolved to be as efficient as possible when it comes to dealing with threats to our personal being. It turns out that our brains basically do a "hard re-set" to prepare ourselves for whatever dangers we may encounter in the new, unknown environment. Commonly, a lot of what is in our short-term memories is cleared to make way for our brains to deal with the current situation. Therefore, when we pass through a doorway or passage, years of evolution have taught our brains to be as prepared as possible. Whatever we were thinking before in the earlier environment is likely less important than any new information we might get from our new environment.

As Jeffrey M. Zacks, a psychology professor and director of The Dynamic Cognition Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis put it, “When we walk from one room to another, information about people and objects that we were dealing with in the old room is less likely to be relevant, and it appears our memory machinery is optimized to take advantage of this, releasing that old information to make information about the new situation more accessible."

So the next time you get off the couch to get yourself a cold can of soda, make sure to keep the reason you went into the kitchen on your mind. I'm pretty sure the dangers posed by your refrigerator are not dire enough to worry about!

Now what did I come in here for again?

Source:

Through Doorways and Forgetfulness: Memory Researcher Receives Publicity, High Praise: http://psychology.nd.edu/news/35868-through-doorways-and-forgetfulness-memory-researcher-receives-publicity-high-praise/