Yesterday morning, before I had my coffee I opened the fridge door and stood there. “What am I doing here?” I wondered aloud, (not to be mistaken for “Why do I exist?). It took me a few seconds to remember the item I wanted, and I moved on to make breakfast. But it stuck with me. A few days ago I found my socks in my make-up drawer, and last spring a tax rebate disappeared forever, it seemed. Well, I humphed, at least I didn’t find the eggs in the freezer, and the frozen pizza on the piano!
Once I had my coffee and was myself again, I went for a long walk with my husband. After all, exercise is great for the brain, they say.
“Is there anything different about me?” I asked him. “I mean, do you notice that I’m more forgetful?”
“More forgetful than what?” he asked. Then I remembered—he forgot his doctor’s appointment yesterday, and was now forgetting to mention that yes, he too is forgetful.
So, wrong person to ask.
“I know I came in here for something, but I can’t remember what it is …”
According to Terri Pous,
“If you’ve ever said something like this, you’ve probably experienced an ‘event boundary.’ Many, if not all of us, have had the experience of walking into a room and forgetting what it was we came in there to do.”
Researcher Gabriel Radvansky of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana conducted a study on this occurrence, and concluded that walking through doorways causes memory to lapse. He explains:
“Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away. That means that by the time you’re staring blankly at the kitchen counter, your brain has already moved on from the thought that led you in there, and you can’t always effectively backtrack. Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.”
A few suggestions for breaking through event boundaries, according to Terri Pous in NewsFeed:
- mentally repeat the decision or action as you enter the room
- announce what you’re about to do
- or move to a one-room apartment
Ellen’s Solutions to the “forgetting the name” problem
But there is nothing that beats forgetting a person’s name. You see a person, or you think about a person. The face is there, she is speaking to you, you could reach out and touch her, and her name is—her name is, gone! And its a double whammy if it’s an actor on television. Because then, you see a person, you can’t remember his name, and then you try to think about the name of the movie, and you can’t remember that either.
Ellen Degeneres, who can put a philosophical spin on almost anything, comments,
“There are few possible solutions to the “forgetting the name” problem. And I’m not talking about the ridiculous ones like pretending to faint, then claiming you don’t speak English. One solution is to have the same nickname for everyone. That way you only have to remember one name. A second solution is to say hi to your old friend, and then immediately grab hold of a third person and say, all innocent-like, “You two know each other, right?” You wait for them to introduce themselves and , and then sit back and relax. The problem with this option is if the person just answers, “No, I don’t know this person.”Now you find yourself in the doubly awkward position of having to introduce two people whose names you’ve forgotten.The best solution: Say to her: I’m sorry, remind me again how to pronounce your name?” To which she’ll respond, “Kathy”. Then you continue your clever ruse by saying, “That’s right, the emphasis is on the first syllable, Ka-thy, I always think it’s on the second, Ka-thy. I’m glad you corrected me, my old friend. Problem solved!”
And this from Sean Keogh: “According to my best recollection, I don’t remember.”