Why do we never lose certain skills we have learned, even if we haven’t practiced them for a long time. like for example riding a bicycle, and we lose some, like a new language we learned 10 years ago but can’t remember anything about it now?

Question

Why do we never lose certain skills we have learned, even if we haven’t practiced them for a long time. like for example riding a bicycle, and we lose some, like a new language we learned 10 years ago but can’t remember anything about it now?

In: 5857

Answer 1

The truth is that we never really forget anything, we just fail to retrieve the information. It’s like a path in a forest. A well-trodden path is easy to spot and easy to follow, you can get to your destination easily. A path that’s rarely used will get overgrown and become difficult to navigate. However, the path is still there, and if you start using it again you’ll find it easier than trying to make a brand new path.

If you put your mind to learning that language you “forgot”, you’d actually find you had a much easier time learning it again than you had the first time. The information is already there, you just need to find the path again.