Ruizhi Lin - Week 18 - Door Memory
4/5/22
5:11 PM
Many of us have experienced forgetfulness when arriving at our destination, only to remember after going back. Forgetfulness typically happens
when people either do not associate enough importance with something or when much
time has gone by. This phenomenon is typically associated with short-term memory,
but have you heard of forgetfulness being triggered by doors?
In a set of research from the University of Notre Dame, a
group of scientists wanted to test out if doors really contributed to temporary
memory loss. In one experiment, the researchers had participants play a video game
where they would use arrow keys to choose objects to put into a backpack to be
brought to elsewhere. In the process of moving around, the shapes would disappear.
During this process, researchers would randomly ask questions to test the
participants' knowledge of what shape was in their backpack (sometimes when just
walking around in the virtual room and other times right when they were in a
doorway). Surprisingly enough, whenever the participants were asked the
question in the doorway, they tended to have slower and more inaccurate
answers.
Although the researchers do not know what exactly caused the
temporary forgetfulness in the experiment, it does back the idea that people
remember things better when in the right context. Meanwhile, the results also
show how not all memory is not only about concentration and the time elapsed
but kept on hand until the brain unconsciously decides the information is not necessary
anymore, furthering the idea that the human brain has limits on how much memory
it can keep.
Comments
Wow! This is such an interesting study! Maybe this is why I always forget where I'm going and go into the wrong room, both at home and at school. I've gone out the wrong door once and had to walk all the way around the school to get to the correct destination before. The fact that people can remember things better in the right context probably connects to studying. I study better at home and in certain classrooms over others so this is probably true for myself and others. I would like to try this experiment at home in the future to see if it actually works.
I’m totally guilty of just walking to another part of my house and forgetting what I was going to do there. I found it really interesting that going through doorways or into another setting/room can possibly just make you forget about things. I agree with you that it does reveal some intriguing things about context and situation-dependent memories. There are so many things that our brains do unconsciously it’s actually mind-blowing. The fact that it can often make decisions on its own without our conscious thinking is maybe a little bit weird to think about, but can be helpful nonetheless.
-Angel Susantin
This is such an interesting topic and I never thought of associating doors to memory. I've always walked into my room only to forget what I was there for but yet walked out to remember exactly what I was looking for. Yet, walking into a classroom just makes me remember what we need to do or what mindset I should be in.
I thought that this was quite an interesting blog as I never heard of this before. LIKE WHAT, which big brain scientist was just like, I think everyone forgets stuff in front of a door. Although we might think this experiment isn’t true, we might get reminded of it next time we open a door and forget something. I think that this is maybe because our brain processes doors as a barrier to something and it makes sense how we may thing something might be more exciting later.
Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
When I was a little girl, I used to have an irrational fear of leaving my closet door open at night before I went to bed. Looking back on it, I think that I was intimidated by the dark void that came from my open closet door. Taking your blog into perspective, this fear kind of correlates to it. Forgetfulness is often associated with darkness and emptiness. In this sense, dark voids are not too off. Thank you for providing me more insight in my childhood fear.
Just like how it is stated that everyday humans make thousands of decisions unconsciously or unknowingly doing so. Doors are like options and voids into endless decisions that could go a lot of different ways providing an endless possibility. When coming to a doorway we are offered opinions on making decisions.
I found your blog post really interesting, I never knew doors were the problem! I never knew it could be proven by an experiment that we have even worse memory next to a door compared to any part of the room. I remember walking out of my room, determined to complete a task, only to forget once I leave my room. This has happened to me way too many times, and I always have to walk back into my room in order to remember what I had to do. It’s as if doors just somehow automatically make us forget what we were supposed to do.
Sincerely,
Faith Tong