why our brains can form arbitrary memories from seemingly random events and recall them perfectly but its hard to memorize something when you are intentionally trying to memorize it?

Question

why our brains can form arbitrary memories from seemingly random events and recall them perfectly but its hard to memorize something when you are intentionally trying to memorize it?

In: Biology

Answer 1

While there are many great technical answers on this thread, a simpler answer may be a process known as “survivorship bias”. It seems so much harder to memorize things on purpose because you’re much more likely to notice when you forget (like on a test). Random memories that seem to appear out of nowhere usually have no reason to be challenged. In truth, almost all of the fine details of most people’s lives are forgotten fairly quickly. Our memories often fill in the gaps when it’s not so important to remember every detail.