We come across a lot of situations in our daily life remembering, recollecting and forgetting many things. Among the numerous things, have you ever wondered why we remember or forget certain faces, incidents, emotions, or situations, unintentionally?

Sometimes we try hard to remember certain things and other times we try harder to forget things.

It is a bliss to forget sometimes, but why do we forget? How can we improve our memory?

Here, in this blog, Karetrip will discuss the science behind why we forget and explore some tips to enhance our memory.

Why Do We Forget?

• Forgetting is a natural process of memory. In fact it is an essential feature of our brain.

• Without forgetting, the brain has to deal with lots of information simultaneously.

• When there is lots of information, the brain could not process them well. This state when we are not able to process and act as per the instructions is called cognitive overload. It is a kind of paralysis of information.

• So forgetting is an essential feature of our brain.

• Forgetting is also called the fading of memories.

The Science of Forgetting

1. Interference Theory

We may remember a scene from a movie but couldn’t recall the actor’s name. Students when writing their exams often complain recalling the page numbers with answers, but couldn’t recall what the content is.

In our life we often come across these situations. Sometimes we recollect the forgotten memories (or information) later and sometimes we can’t.

Someone randomly remembering a useless random piece of information from the past, or some memories we tried hard to remember pop out unexpectedly.

There is a rush of information everywhere, from news to experience, this information is consolidated in our brains. Sometimes some memories become inaccessible or unavailable due to the huge amount of memories.

Interference theory explains why long-term memories are lost .

The theory points out the interference of the old memories with newly acquired memories. It is divided into two:

• Proactive interference: Past memories interrupt one’s ability to remember new information

• Retroactive interference: New information blocks retrieval of old memories

For example remembering phone numbers can be confusing. There are huge chances of them being mistaken or mixed up.

Learning new vocabulary especially when too many common words have different meanings etc.

2. Trace-Decay Theory

Time destroys everything. Nothing is constant. So are memories. By the passage of time the memories fade.

You may feel some memories in our brain are inaccessible or vague. You cannot recollect them as your will.

If the memories are not recalled often they may be lost forever. They usually occur in short term memories when old memories are replaced by new ones.

Students are constantly reminded of the need to revise what they have learned, or they can, as the trace decay theory suggests, forget it soon. If the lessons are not retrieved and revised them may fade and disappear.

3. Motivated Forgetting

Oh! What an embarrassment it was.

It was so painful that I don’t want to remember it anymore.

I wish I didn’t have any shared memories with him

All memories are not sweet. Sometimes we wish we could purposely forget some memories so we can move on in our life.

Motivated forgetting is deliberate forgetting of some memories. It involves: BOX

• Suppression: It is the conscious forgetting of the personal past. These can be done by avoiding the places and situations that trigger those memories and changing our focus by getting busy with things.

• Regression: They are an unconscious reflex of our brain. Some traumatic experiences can make people insane and affect their life. Regression is a defensive mechanism of the brain to prevent those experiences from remembering.

4. Encoding Failure

All the memories don’t get to our long term memory. Sometimes memory loss starts before the actual memory process begins. This is called encoding failure.

Have you ever worked on an MS Office file and closed it before actually saving it? Looking for these files is actually useless.

Sometimes our brain does the same. This information cannot be retrieved because they are not stored in the first place.

It occurs due to many reasons, including minimal attention to detail, or tagged as irrelevant information etc.

Other Factors Leading to Forgetting

There are a number of factors leading to forgetting. These include both internal and external factors.

Other than the psychological factors discussed above there are many other factors both lifestyle and physiological factors affecting the memory.

• Stress and Depression
• Lack of sleep
• Age
• Alzheimer’s and other diseases affecting brain and CNS
• Certain Medications etc.

Tips to Improve Memory

Forgetting important things can be frustrating.

Sometimes we can remember things but couldn’t explain it in detail because most of them have been shattered or sometimes we couldn’t even remember something happened.

These can lead to many difficulties in our personal and professional lives.

Here are some tips to improve your memory.

• Focus your attention

Attention is essential for improving memory. Getting rid of distractions is important to grasp things accurately.

Avoid distractions like mobile phones, TV or other distractions when doing serious jobs.

In today's digital education it is difficult to avoid screen time during your education. Mobile phones and the internet are unavoidable parts of education these days. So make sure you are the master of your own devices and avoid letting them be any kind of distraction.

• Active and Interactive learning

Interactive learning improves your memory and ability to learn. Engaging activities help improve your learning pace and quality.

• Use Mnemonics

Have you heard of people memorizing random numbers? They remember long strings of numbers in a short time.

Have you wondered how?

They relate those numbers or images to some experiences, clues or a storyline.

Mnemonics is the trick. They are memory devices to learn and recall large pieces of information.

These include rhyming, imagery, repetition, relations etc…

Haven't you understood yet? Let me teach you the simplest mnemonic.

It is an alphabet song.

Yes! ABCs nursery rhyme imprinted in our brains is a mnemonic.

• Regular review

The brain tends to throw away the unused information to accommodate space for newer memories and to reduce the information traffic.

The best way to keep your memories intact is to refresh and review it regularly

• Lifestyle Decisions

Sleeping cycle, regular exercise and dietary habits have a significant role in our overall health.

They also contribute to a healthy brain and improved memory.

Sleep plays a vital role in consolidating short term memory into long term memory while exercise and healthy diet helps in retention of the memories safe and stable.

They also help the body to provide enough oxygen and nutrients for the proper functioning of brain and cognition functions.

Memory connects a person's past self to its present self. It retains his identity, relation and self. It also plays an impressive role in learning and improving oneself.

Forgetting helps people to divert their attention and energy from unnecessary distractions and help to focus towards the future. In other words, it can be said to be a connection between a person’s present and future self.

By understanding the science behind forgetting, we can improve our memory and keep ourselves progressing. By proper focus, attention and reviews we can stabilise our memory and optimise ourselves.