2 Reasons Why Forgetting Is Essential to Memory

I go to the grocery store to buy groceries, but I can't remember where I parked my car. This is very common. Why do I keep forgetting this? If you have a perfect memory, you won't have to get lost in the parking lot. So why do most people keep forgetting?

Why do we forget?

Why do we forget? What's the good of forgetting? There are many reasons for forgetting. The first is efficiency. We have a lot of information in our lives. Because of the constant flow of information, information competes with each other, and one information pushes out the other. If you go back to the parking lot example, you don't go to the grocery store once or twice. So, if today I parked on the third basement floor, and last week I parked on the fourth basement floor, the information that I parked last week will interfere with the current information. This is called 'interference'. As we are constantly bombarded with information, it can interfere with each other and make it difficult for me to remember where I parked.

In fact, we don't have to remember everything. Whether or not I turned off the gas light in the morning or what I ate last Monday morning is not that important information. Information you don't need to remember is filtered out by your brain.Of course, there are times when we forget important information, but in general, it organizes the information that we don't really need. That's why we can use our resources efficiently.

Second, one of the important functions of oblivion is generalization. Generalization is the process of extracting things that overlap in different situations and eliminating things that don't. This elimination of unnecessary information through forgetting makes it easier to generalize, helps to form concepts, and helps to think abstractly.

Sometimes, forgetting can help with creative thinking. In order to think creatively, you have to forget existing information and create something new. If you forget some information through forgetting, you can get out of that information and get out of it. In fact, in some experiments, people who forgot a lot actually came up with more creative ideas.

And sometimes remembering too much can be a problem. There's probably a black history or two that we don't really want to think about. Sometimes it's better not to recall sad experiences and bad memories because you were very ashamed. On the contrary, remembering these bad experiences too well can be problematic. Post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD, is a case where memories are too intense.

If you were going to talk about something but forgot about it, it's a little vague to call it forgetting. You have the information, but you don't remember it. It's often referred to as the 'tongue phenomenon'. In this case, a simple piece of information is enough to recall it.

Do you have a perfect memory?

Sometimes, I see it once and remember it, or I wish that what I remembered would last a very long time. But in fact, oblivion is a necessity in a way. As in the previous examples, forgetting is essential for memory, and it allows us to store only the most important information among various kinds of information, generalize it, and form concepts. Because many of these important cognitive functions are made possible by forgetting, perfect memories may not always be good.

Let me close with a quote from the Italian novelist and poet Cesare Pavesse. "We don't remember the days, we remember the moments. The richness of life comes from forgotten memories." Forgetting is essential to memory and essential to our lives. Your memories and forgetfulness may be in a delicate state of balance.