• Question: Why do we forget some things, and remember others? Even though the the things we remember aren\'t important, and the things we forget are?

    Asked by amy14 to Fiona, Jane, Joanna, Michelle, William on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Michelle Murphy

      Michelle Murphy answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      If you find something funny or interesting you then to think about it for a while and maybe even tell others about it and so access the information a number of times reminding your brain of what it is and this helps us to remember (like revising for an exam) but if you find information dull and dont use it then you might forget it.

    • Photo: Jane Henry

      Jane Henry answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      We find it easier to remember recent things eg the lesson you have just done, rather the ones you did last week, bizarre things, like a pig flying, and things that interest us, like sport or fashion or music or how the world works. We also have a much better memory for visual things than words, we can flick though loads of photos (100s) and subsequently generally remember which we have seen and which not. This is one reason some people find it easier to remember notes done as mind map diagrams than lists for exams. We also remember things that we have more associations with.

    • Photo: Joanna Brooks

      Joanna Brooks answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hiya! One reason why we forget important things is that the information wasn’t stored very well in the first place – maybe something else distracted our attention.

      We might remember things that are not very important because it was tagged by accident to another piece of information. For example, imagine being at a party and your friend is telling you some really exciting news – when you think about the news later on you also remember the colour of the t-shirt another friend was wearing. This is not important but because you were so excited about the news your brain was more responsive to storing other stuff as well.

    • Photo: Fiona Randall

      Fiona Randall answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Hi amy14, I wish there was an easy way to answer that. I always forget important things! If you are emotionally affected by an event, so it makes you really happy/angry/sad etc, then it is known you are more likely to remember it that if it doesn’t make you feel emotional. This emotional enhancement of your memories is done by the part of the brain called the amygdala, although the exact way it does this is not yet known. If there is something important you need to remember then maybe the best way is to associate it with an event you will remember so it is stored in the same place but I am not sure!

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