Arnav Kheni- Week 13- My Memory Problem
Having a slip-up can be considered funny. Oftentimes on the internet, I have seen people make shorts on things like going into a room and forgetting why they were there, and then everyone in the comments talk about how relatable that is. There are then scientists who also explain the phenomenon, hence further cementing the commonality of small memory slips in cases like these. According to Dr. Jessica Mcfayden from the University of London, this is called the “doorway effect” (Mcfayden). Essentially, we use doorways to “segment our experience” into “different events” and classify information based on rooms; therefore, when we cross these “event boundaries,” our mind “flush[es] out the information” from the previous room (Mcfayden).
However, I cannot personally say that this has been a huge problem for me. While it does occur from time to time, my main problem lies in the general instances of forgetfulness. As a kid, I would have a hard time memorizing things like the times tables and the definitions of words. To this day, I still think the latter was completely unnecessary as long as I understood it conceptually, but I digress. As I have grown older, I have realized that my memory is not as bad as I originally thought, albeit still on the lower half. Funnily enough, I can sometimes remember the most obscure stuff from back in elementary and middle school, and I can remember conversations that happened years ago and annoyingly bring it up in arguments/debates. But all in all, I find myself to still have a hard time remembering stuff. So when it comes to things like memorizing, I often use patterns or convoluted derivation methods that trade accuracy for speed and results. So compared to my childhood-self, I can confidently say that this has not remained as big of a problem when it comes to studying. Although, it has proved inconvenient in day-to-day life, both at school and home, for when I have forgotten instructions given to me by my parents or teachers. Or equally worse, my mind sometimes works so fast that it outpaces my writing and makes me skip words or phrases, rendering those sentences unreadable. But, I have improved in those areas throughout high school. And I hope to continue to improve until I hit adulthood, in which those problems would more so need to be fixed.
Link to Mcfayden's article: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/mar/analysis-its-not-just-doorways-make-us-forget-what-we-came-next-room
Hi Arnav! Your blog is quite relatable, almost every aspect of it. I have definitely felt the experience of going up to get my socks or my phone and not remembering what I came up to do, and it is fascinating how you explain that doorways act as a singular event, and that once you walk through a door, that memory often flushes out of your brain. It’s great to hear my own experiences and mishaps be put into scientific logic and reason, and definitely gives me more curiosity about our human mind. I also like how you talk about your own experiences, such as not remembering core concepts but random memories from a long time ago. I definitely relate to that feeling. I am way better at short-term memory than long term, which obviously does not help in the long run. I have also experienced reading through my essays during review time and seeing the incomplete phrases created by my hyper brain. Overall, this was an accurate and relatable blog, good job!
ReplyDeleteHey Arnav, this is so relatable man... Just like you, I've definitely had run ins with the doorway issue, but many times I think of that phenomenon to be reserved for cartoon and movie exaggerations, because I really never see them happening to me. My biggest problem, just like you mentioned with you, is just being overall forgetful. So many times this year, I had responsibilities for classes or leadership like selling prom tickets, making up tests during flex, etc, and so many times I literally just forget. I don't know why. Sometimes I even make reminders to make sure I remember, but once I close that reminder and start talking with my friends, it completely slips out of mind. I'm going to have to do more research onto how to help myself about this lol.
ReplyDeleteHey Arnav! I noticed our blogs are quite similar, as you mentioned in your comment to me. However, it’s interesting how each person’s memories work differently, and what we can recall. It’s great that you can still remember significant or even random moments from your childhood that can be used in everyday conversations. Although I still reflect back on specific moments from my life, it can sometimes get disorganized with my personal timeline of when each moment happened. The “doorway effect” is a unique way to look at how people react to different situations where they may forget what they were doing. I’ve definitely experienced it before and wondered if there was something wrong with me, but I’m glad to know that I’m not alone. I hope you can find ways to improve your memory for the future and I wish you luck on that!
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