From the DUH! Institute for the Advanced Study of the Obvious comes this startling find.
Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows
We’ve all experienced it: The frustration of entering a room and forgetting what we were going to do. Or get. Or find.
New research from University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky suggests that passing through doorways is the cause of these memory lapses.
“Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains.
“Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.”
The study was published recently in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Their next research project is on whether men and women respond differently to the Three Stooges. Can’t wait for that one.
November 23, 2011 at 3:12 pm
In other news, climbing into a bathtub filled with water will cause your phone to ring.
November 23, 2011 at 7:48 pm
I work at a grocery store, and EVERY DAY I see people walk in and immediately exclaim that they have no idea why they are there. I laugh with them about it, secretly thankful that I'm not the only one who does this. 😉
November 23, 2011 at 7:58 pm
This gives me an idea for an invention, of a little room or cubicle wherein a priest would sit to hear people confess their sins; when he exited through the doorway of this little room he would be assisted by this effect, to forget the sins people told him and of which he had absolved them.
November 23, 2011 at 8:11 pm
destiamnesia…I made that up. Seriously.
November 23, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Which explains the penchant our politicians have for forgetting as much as they do…they're walking through doorways ALL THE TIME.
November 23, 2011 at 8:53 pm
@elm destiamnesia..excellent. create-a-space the new remedy for destiamnesia.
November 23, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Next time I watch a presidential address I am doing it through a doorway. Whatever crap Obama says, I will instantly doorget.
November 24, 2011 at 9:17 am
Well, perhaps the result was a for-gone conclusion in popular knowledge, but IMHO it is worthy in many cases to try to figure out the more specific causes. Perhaps this research will allow them to give mental-strategies to combat it.
Because face it, forgetting one's intention by going into another room can be pretty annoying.
November 24, 2011 at 10:26 pm
I wonder why I NEVER have the same memory lapses when I go through the door to the bathroom…….?