If you are a student, you most probably have experienced some kind of mental block in a middle of a test or a recitation. If you’re not a student, at least you most likely have experienced or even do experience a usual “Snap! I forgot to—" situation. It is also possible that out of these circumstances, you have always blamed your head or “stupid head”. Kinda harsh, but you’re right about blaming nothing else but that brain of yours, because our brain has a really complicated way of both processing and storing memory.

According to a known memory researcher named Elizabeth Loftus, there are 4 reasons or theories that explain why we usually have to deal with forgetfulness even when it is even completely out of our minds to encounter.

1. Retrieval Failure

Like a computer that deals with so many files and really works to keep them, there is always that difficulty experienced by the brain in retrieving one of the many information it stores. Imagine, our brain absorbs all types of information—everything we hear, see, taste, smell, and feel. On a day, an average of 34 gigabytes of information is processed by each of our brains—enough to get you running for an external hard disk for a laptop after a whole week of that level of daily storage.



See, if our laptops have to load a folder with so many movies or music in it and even lag for so many minutes in the process, so do our brains that deal with not just information but unique reactions to these details. Now, in retrieval failure, there is this theory called decay theory that suggests that memory traces are created once new information is processed by the brain for storage and that unfortunately, when this information is not often used or rehearsed, it might just go away like completely decay on its own, failing to help you when you already need it after a long while of not being able to utilize it--yes something the computer gets a point from, because it does not really decay your files.

2. Interference

Our brains are composed of so many signals working just like how smartphones stay connected to each other through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Now, when our brains have so much stored memory which is inevitable and natural, it is really bound to experience interferences like a radio network experiencing interferences from other networks connected to it, blocking it from being aired.



According to Loftus, there are two types of interference the brain experiences that hinder it from remembering things well.

• Proactive Interference- it is when an old memory makes it difficult to remember a newly stored memory perhaps because they contradict each other or they are not of very significant information.
• Retroactive Interference-it is when a new information makes it difficult for the brain to remember a previously stored memory perhaps because the new information is taking up a great deal of contemplation in the person's part.

3. Failure to Store

When we absorb an information, we are quick to think that it is always stored, somehow overestimating the brain's ability to store everything and just not allow you to find it when needed. HOW WRONG.... Sometimes, when we are asked to do something over and over again until we reach the standard asked of us to reach, we fail to see through every detail of that project.



Let's say you are asked to repeat the shape of the object because you keep messing it up and that you are asked to do it as a school requirement you cannot afford to jeopardize--you do not really encode the other information in that activity or drawing itself in the process, for you are focused on what you were asked to redo. After a few months after that activity you are probably just going to have a sharp image of what that object's real shape is but not really remember much of its designs and other stuff.

4. Motivated Forgetting

A lot of people want to forget about so many things for reasons that the memories were just really bad and dark. When many of these people do not really get to do such, there are still those who manage to do so either consciously or unconsciously.



Here are two types of motivated forgetting:

• Suppression- the conscious form of forgetting that is made possible by oneself's motivated goal to forget certain memories therefore actively allowing oneself to commit actions to exclude these thoughts from awareness.
• Repression- the unconscious and still doubted form of forgetting by many psychologists. This form of forgetting is done when a person who went through something traumatic subconsciously pushes all these memories away as a way of coping. The reason why it is not universally accepted by psychologists is because there is no way to tell whether a memory has really been repressed or not.
  
  

The most important thing to take from this article is that if we want to strengthen our memory, we should exercise it, rehearse its content, and basically just take care of our brains like you would your precious laptops--avoid toxic thoughts, gather and absorb important information healthily, give your brain breaks too, do not consume any beverage, food, or substance that could cause memory impairment, and of course find your own peace of mind because...

a mind in peace is a brain in its whole piece

references

• Very Well
• Scientific American
• Tech 21 Century

gif sources

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