"The doorway effect"

Why do we forget why we came

Dronk.En, Geektimes based on BBC materials: Tom Stafford, Why does walking through doorways make us forget?

Isn't it a familiar situation: getting up from the chair and confidently walking into the next room for some specific purpose, we, having crossed its threshold, suddenly realize that we have completely forgotten, and why, in fact, did we come there? The reason for this curious phenomenon lies in the peculiarities of the mechanisms of our memory. Below we will talk about the phenomenon of the "Doorway Effect" (Doorway Effect).

In fact, the association with a doorway is only a special case of a more general phenomenon that manifests itself in our lives in a variety of situations. It is enough to remember how opening the refrigerator, we forget what, in fact, we need from it. Or, for example, a very common situation when listening to the interlocutor, you are forced to leave your question for later, waiting for the opponent to finish his monologue. And when, finally, you have the opportunity to comment on what has been said, you are surprised and annoyed to find that you have forgotten everything you wanted to say. Sometimes in such situations it is possible to restore the chain, and sometimes any attempts are broken by an insurmountable obstacle. What happens at such a moment?

It turns out that our perception simultaneously captures what is happening around at different levels. As in the parable about three builders of one brigade, one of whom, according to his conviction, is engaged in putting one brick on another, the second builds a wall, and the third creates a temple. In fact, they all do one thing, and another, and the third at the same time. And our attention is able to switch between different levels of perception, but at each individual moment of time to be only on one of them. In the language of the parable, we are focused on how we lay the next brick, or imagine the process in its sequence, or think about the ultimate goal of the work being done. If we don't have the proven skill of bricklaying, then we are completely focused on a specific action. By analogy, a novice driver who does not drive well thinks hard about when to change the speed or press the pedal, as opposed to a professional who will be able to talk quite comfortably with a passenger on the way or appreciate the uniqueness of local attractions.

The described feature of our perception of reality is most directly related to the "doorway effect" that occurs at the moment when our attention wanders between different levels of perception, often lingering not where "we needed it" until quite recently. Using the example with the interlocutor given above. You intend to object to your opponent and your attention is completely absorbed in this goal, but you have to put up with the fact that the interlocutor needs to be allowed to finish. At the moment of waiting, when you start looking hard for a way to get into the conversation, because the operational task has changed, attention switches to another level. When the long-awaited opportunity to speak out is finally found, you find that there is nothing to say anymore, it is no longer possible to switch attention to the right wave.

A similar mechanism works when you forget why you entered the room. For example, you need to take the keys in the back room of your house to go to the store opposite. The "take the keys" level changes to the "walk to the bedroom" level, and on the way you still notice a cup left by someone the day before, which you decide to take to the kitchen. You don't notice that at this moment your attention switches from one plan to another several times, but the more such switches occurred on the way to the bedroom, the more likely it is that when you reach it you will ask the question: why, in fact, did I go here?

Finding the answer to this question in such situations can help imaginative unwinding of an imaginary "film" in reverse order, when you mentally leave the bedroom and go back the same way.

The scientific term "doorway effect" was introduced by a psychologist from the USA, Gabriel A. Radvansky, in 2011, and the reason was the experiments he conducted. The task facing the participants was to move between the rooms of the virtual house created by Rodvansky, and at the same time perform various tasks for memorization. The experiment unequivocally confirmed that a person is much more likely to forget what he saw or heard after passing through the doorway. At the same time, he could walk the same distance across a large room and keep the goal in mind, but as soon as he moved from room to room, the information was "erased". A similar effect was confirmed in the second experiment conducted in a real house. The scientist came to the conclusion that the doorway in this case plays the role of another informational episode, which carries a serious additional load for our memory, complicating attempts to recall the initial message.

Knowing how the "doorway effect" works, we can avoid similar problems in the future. And when faced with a problem, it is enough to walk mentally or physically through the chapters of your memory in reverse order until the desired memory is restored.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  07.06.2016