Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows
32 replies, posted
[IMG]http://s.ph-cdn.com/newman/gfx/news/2011/walkingthrou.jpg[/IMG]
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[B](Medical Xpress) -- We’ve all experienced it: The frustration of entering a room and forgetting what we were going to do. Or get. Or find.[/B]
New research from University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky suggests that passing through doorways is the cause of these memory lapses.
“Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains.
“Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.”
The study was published recently in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Conducting three experiments in both real and virtual environments, Radvansky’s subjects – all college students – performed memory tasks while crossing a room and while exiting a doorway.
In the first experiment, subjects used a virtual environment and moved from one room to another, selecting an object on a table and exchanging it for an object at a different table. They did the same thing while simply moving across a room but not crossing through a doorway.
Radvansky found that the subjects forgot more after walking through a doorway compared to moving the same distance across a room, suggesting that the doorway or “event boundary” impedes one’s ability to retrieve thoughts or decisions made in a different room.
The second experiment in a real-world setting required subjects to conceal in boxes the objects chosen from the table and move either across a room or travel the same distance and walk through a doorway. The results in the real-world environment replicated those in the virtual world: walking through a doorway diminished subjects’ memories.
The final experiment was designed to test whether doorways actually served as event boundaries or if one’s ability to remember is linked to the environment in which a decision – in this case, the selection of an object – was created. Previous research has shown that environmental factors affect memory and that information learned in one environment is retrieved better when the retrieval occurs in the same context. Subjects in this leg of the study passed through several doorways, leading back to the room in which they started. The results showed no improvements in memory, suggesting that the act of passing through a doorway serves as a way the mind files away memories.
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I just went to get something to drink and now I can't remember what pun I wanted to use
Time to invest in some sticky notes to put on my forehead while I walk through doors.
Ah yes, brain farts. Don't we all love those?
[QUOTE]“Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains.
“Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.”[/QUOTE]
Oh, for fuck's sake brain, get it together.
(It's a joke. Get it together as in undoing the compartmentalization. Get it? Never mind...)
This actually explains a lot
I always noticed that after entering a room I totally forgot what I wanted to do
Walking [i]through[/i] doors, eh?
[img]http://www.bf3servers.com/wp-content/uploads/b3c80_battlefield_guyswait.gif[/img]
Oh yeah, we're supposed to open the door first.
Funny thing is, I've been thinking about how I'd prefer a house that only has one room in it containing everything a person needs for living.
[img]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhrs5v5HlE1qz8uhuo1_500.jpg[/img]
Something like this, only maybe 2-3x bigger. For one person, it'd be extremely cheap, and all you need plus luxuries even still.
Does living in that mean I have perfect memory? :v:
[QUOTE=Psychopath12;33350159]Walking [i]through[/i] doors, eh?
[img]http://www.bf3servers.com/wp-content/uploads/b3c80_battlefield_guyswait.gif[/img]
Oh yeah, we're supposed to open the door first.[/QUOTE]
Nope, doorways
[editline]19th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=J!NX;33350187]Funny thing is, I've been thinking about how I'd prefer a house that only has one room in it containing everything a person needs for living.
[img]http://www.themag.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/4o4.jpg[/img]
Something like this, only maybe 2-3x bigger. For one person, it'd be extremely cheap, and all you need plus luxuries even still.[/QUOTE]
Bad image link
Actually, that's because when you remember something, there is a cue that cued you into remembering something. The doorway may be what causes you to forget because your brain now realizes that the cue and your body are separate and you forget. It's why you backtrack when you go up the stairs when you forget something sometimes.
Fun fact, In England, there's an uncommon slang term for this, It's called Woking.
No that's not some sort of sly joke.
If that's what doorways do...
what are the side effects of using Portals?
=[
[QUOTE=Maloof?;33350313]If that's what doorways do...
what are the side effects of using Portals?
=[[/QUOTE]
Temporary disorientation
followed by death
[editline]20th November 2011[/editline]
What if, hypothetically, you had two rooms, one connected to the other by a single doorway, both exact replicas of the other? What would happen then?
[QUOTE=evlbzltyr;33350434]What if, hypothetically, you had two rooms, one connected to the other by a single doorway, both exact replicas of the other? What would happen then?[/QUOTE]
Permanent deja vu
oh god this gave me a good laugh
Great, just what Facepunch needed.
An excuse not to leave their rooms.
I'm still convinced it's The Silence from Doctor Who
[QUOTE=evlbzltyr;33350434]Temporary disorientation
followed by death
[editline]20th November 2011[/editline]
What if, hypothetically, you had two rooms, one connected to the other by a single doorway, both exact replicas of the other? What would happen then?[/QUOTE]
That couldn't happen, the doorway would be on different sides of the room(s)
[QUOTE=halflambada;33350857]I'm still convinced it's The Silence from Doctor Who[/QUOTE]
I really need to start carrying black markers with me, but I keep forgetting.
[QUOTE=BackflipHatchetAttack;33351194]That couldn't happen, the doorway would be on different sides of the room(s)[/QUOTE]
Doorway in exact center.
What now?
[QUOTE=J!NX;33350187]Funny thing is, I've been thinking about how I'd prefer a house that only has one room in it containing everything a person needs for living.
[img]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhrs5v5HlE1qz8uhuo1_500.jpg[/img]
Something like this, only maybe 2-3x bigger. For one person, it'd be extremely cheap, and all you need plus luxuries even still.
Does living in that mean I have perfect memory? :v:[/QUOTE]
Your mind would probably still divide it into rooms causing the same effect
So, jumping out of windows still does the same thing? Well, that was a waste of time and effort.
This is incredible. I mean, I'm just amazed at this finding.
[QUOTE=Cl0cK;33351683]So, jumping out of windows still does the same thing? Well, that was a waste of time and effort.[/QUOTE]
well yeah
technically a window is a doorway for light
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;33349525]Ah yes, brain farts. Don't we all love those?[/QUOTE]
Not as bad as me, I could be reaching for something on my desk and get 6 inches away from it and suddenly "...What was I reaching for again?"
Brain farts? More like cognitive diarrhea.
[img]http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/images/9/9b/Toolsareaportal.gif[/img]
Cursed area portals!
[QUOTE=Zeke129;33351676]Your mind would probably still divide it into rooms causing the same effect[/QUOTE]
The stairs would be the event separator
except if you were thinking about what you were going to do while walking down the stairs, your mind might implode and you'll tumble down the stairs to your death.
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