Wednesday, May 02, 2012

1730 Where Am I?

As we get older, I think it's only natural for us to be hypersensitive to the loss of memory. We can't help but worry when we do things like repeating ourselves. Or find ourselves reading the same sentence over and over. Or find ourselves reading the same sentence over and over. Or find ourselves reading the same sentence and wondering if we're going totally batty.
Such is life. We die in pieces and not in a grand eloquent one-off. But there is some hope. Or at least some consolation in camaraderie, since we're all in the same mental boat. As I read in an interesting factoid in National Geographic recently.
Say a light bulb burns out in your bedroom. You need to get a replacement in the kitchen. You get to the kitchen and can't remember why you're there.
Been there? Sure. Good. It's always a positive sign when you can remember the times you forgot. But that brain flatualence may not be a plain old senior moment. It may be an evolutionary adaptation.
Gabe Radvansky, psychology professor at Notre Dame, did a study. His participants carried things around a house. They didn't remember things very well when they crossed through a doorway.
The doorway apparently signaled a change in environment. A new scene for action. Or fear. Or awareness. Going through a doorway creates a change of venue that makes your brain "push out old stuff and focus on what's going on now." That saber-toothed tiger lurking outside your cave door perhaps. Or the monster under your bed you fled when you went down to get a light bulb.
National Geographic recommends you take a Post-it with you to remind you of the purpose of your search.
Now where did I leave my Post-its...?
America ya gotta love it.

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