I was thinking how sometimes when you’re looking for something and eventually find it, you then remember leaving there.
So my question is, why do we forget certain stuff. Specially since certain triggers will bring those memories back meaning they never actually left our memory.
In: 11
Because we have [selective attention](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo).
Our brains forget (disregard) A LOT of what we see, hear, smell, touch, etc. Your eyes and ears send a constant feed of information to your brain, and it’s A LOT of information that you don’t really need. Colors, make/model of all cars passing by. The faces of everyone in a crowd, their clothes, etc. You don’t NEED all of this information so the brain pretty much drops it (forgets it) as soon as it gets it (from your eyes).
So as a result, memory functions based on importance, on triggers. Loud noises, shocking things happening to you, changes from “normal” are what you’ll memorize, what the brain will pay attention to.
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