: How do we forget something easily even if we try to remember it as hard as we can, but the same thing comes to our mind when we are not even thinking about it?
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/r/Iamverysmart subscriber here.
Inside your mind, there’s neurons and pathways connecting them.
Let’s think of the neurons as trees; and pathways as pathways in that forest.
Your train of thought is as if you’re looking at a giant redwood tree, taking your time, studying the detail. You decide to wander, glancing at the plants all around. Then you notice a strange tree. It has three trunks that twist and weave into itself in a complex pattern. It’s not very tall though, and quite thin. You’ve never ever seen a tree like this before and immediately think there’s no way you’ll ever forget it. After a moment you continue down another path. A few paces later you want to look at the twisted tree again but when you look around it’s gone. You know it was not very tall but you can’t remember any more detail about it. So you begin running back down the path you came, frantically scanning, hoping to see it, until you are back at the giant redwood. Then you stop. You’re sure that you saw it after the redwood but as you look into the dense forest you feel defeated knowing you’re probably not gonna be able to find it again.
How come we hit every single red light when we are in a hurry but when we want to answer a text or get something out of the glove box there’s suddenly nothing but green lights… it’s perception. You remember most of what you want… and forget most of what you don’t care about. You only notice it when you’re annoyed.
People will say they understand this, how the mind recalls something you are trying to remember.
I know *this*: They did some Medical experiments once, they stuck probes in different places in the brain of volunteers, illiciting vivid memories the subject thought they had forgotten. IOW, every memory is stored by the brain.
Your brain is like a CCTV camera on the wall, it records everything in the range of your senses, every single thing you experience, even while sleeping.
Those are the ‘books’ that will be opened on Judgement Day.
I once read somewhere, that we don’t remember things themselves, but rather the last time we remembered the thing. Knowing it helps to not forget basic stuff, like “did I lock the house” – I remember it once a few steps from a for and then I remember the last time I remembered it, and it always works
The memory you are trying to access is hard to find, your brain is like a filing system so if your filing system is not in order (tiredness etc) or you are trying to find a file buried deep somewhere it takes time to find. Your brain runs a search for the memory, the search continues to run even though you aren’t thinking about it, when your brain finds it you will remember.
Not an answer, but a solution: start listing, preferably aloud, aspects, features, categories, etc that describe what you’re trying to remember and you can basically shake loose the memory. Word association games are fun and practical!
Edit: For names, just start saying random names, or names in alphabetical order. I once remembered the name “Jeremy Piven” just by saying “Chris Pines” and “Chris Evans” (I was on C-names). Pine-Evans got me to Piven. Silly brain games.
one day I forgot my banking password. I’d been entering it by memory daily on my iPhone for years but then one day I went put it in an I just couldn’t remember it. I moved to keychain after that to store my passwords, I feel like with age the ability to remember little things can slip with some people, but others they get old and remain sharp for details their whole life. some people are better at recall than others so for them what they are looking for will pop in their head easier than others, people with poor recall may never make the connection and will forget it forever. happens all the time, umbrellas left on the train, appointments forgotten about, forget to pay an invoice, forget the colour of your first kiss’s hair.
Seems to me that you think of a thing in a certain mindset, and then the act of trying to remember it puts you in a different mindset. Then you slip into the original mindset and think of the thing again.
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