Doors--an excuse

I think we all forget stuff, some of us just more often than others.  But did you know that going through a doorway can be part of the reason we forget?  How many times do you get up and go in a room for something but forget what you were going to get?  Or with me, I will get up and go to the computer in another room to look up something, only to find when I sit down, I have forgotten what I wanted to read about.

This is an old article, but I find it makes sense.  You will do better to read the article for yourself, but in case you don't have time it is a bout a team of researchers that devised tests.  First it was in a video game they had the player pick up an item to take and place somewhere else.  Once the item was picked up it became invisible.  If they moved it from one place to another in the same room, they remembered what it was better than if they had to go through a virtual door.  It did not matter what size screen they played the game on.

They also experimented with real people, only when they picked the item up, they placed it in a shoebox with a lid to carry to its new location.  The same thing happened...they remembered what the item was much better if they did not have to go through a doorway.

The article goes on a bit more in depth about how the brain works....at least we have a  legitimate excuse for forgetting things part of the time.