Hold That Thought…If You Can

Have you ever walked from one room and into another, stopped for a moment, and then realized you have no earthly idea why you entered the room? If your answer is no, I do not believe you. If your answer is yes, you can blame your forgetfulness on the doorway. Science says so.

A recent research study by University of Notre Dame professor of psychology “Why-am-I-in-the-Kitchen” Gabriel Radvansky and his colleagues discovered a significant relationship between walking through doorways and lapses in our short-term memory. The study was published in 2011 in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology although it sounds more like an article from the Onion.

So, there you go Mr. or Ms. Forgetful-head. You might have a legit excuse for looking like a lost vagabond in your own home. However, I doubt that I will get by with blaming a doorway for forgetting Valentine’s Day…again.

In this somewhat peculiar study, the scientists selected a typical study group… not rodent lab rats, but college-student lab rats. For one of the experiments, the study leaders asked participants to put six objects from a table into a box, walk through a doorway into a different room, and identify the objects on a computer at a table in that room. The control group had the same mission, but the tables were in the same room; they walked the same distance as the first group.

Lead researcher and Forgtfulologist Radvansky stated in an interview that, even though the task was incredibly simple, the performance difference between the two groups was “big enough to drive a truck through.” Those who ventured into another room were twice to three times as likely to forget what the heck they had in the box. Did these students bang their heads on the doorway? Apparently not…at least during this study.

One of the explanations for this doorway-induced forgetfulness phenomenon relates to an “event boundary,” which is a new term for me. Simply passing through the door creates this event boundary in your brain. The event, ie, doorway passage, separates the episodes of activity, and your brain files them away.

I encourage you to remember this new term (but do not walk into another room after trying to remember it). “Event boundary” can come in handy when you want to cover up your memory malfunction. Such as, “no honey, I did not forget, I passed through an event boundary. That darn doorway caused me to disremember. Whaddya gonna do?”

Interestingly, the researchers did not include a discussion about the effects of walking through a doorway into the bathroom. However, my hypothesis is that if you go into a bathroom and do not remember why you are there, your problem is more serious than an event boundary. “Hon, who put this white birdbath in here?”

Nor did the researchers include practical recommendations for making your house more memory friendly. Would living in one room help? How about moving into a barn? Does walking backwards through a doorway help you to remember thoughts that were lost when passing through in the forward fashion? Are doorways filled with lost memories?

Just for fun, you can try your own research study at home. Think of something, then quickly step through a door, then go back and forth through the doorway. See if you experience the “got it, forgot it, got it, forgot it” phenomenon. Send your findings to researcher Radvansky along with a copy of my new book, Hooked on Mnemonics.

Should we worry about doorways increasing our “senior moments?” Not necessarily. Reading this study helped me discover a new strategy for dealing with forgetfulness. Here is my advice.

Do not distress if you can’t find your car keys or your car or the parking lot. Do not fret if you struggle to remember the name of that one guy with the funny walk, your anniversary date, your Netflix password, the grocery item you desperately need, that one actor…you know the short goofy looking one. Do not agonize if you can’t recall the plot of that book your aunt what’s-her-face recommended, the day of the week, or where you put your glasses (look on the top of your head). Remember, we have proof that walking through the doorway is the enemy of memory. Do as I now do—exit out the window. You will look as sharp as I do.