Why does a person forget what he wanted to do when he came to another room: secrets of the brain
A widespread phenomenon is when a person with a firm intention goes into the next room, and once there, does not remember why he came.
The phenomenon is called the "doorway effect." Interestingly, it is the brain itself that plays such jokes on a person.
The "doorway effect" is a memory lapse that occurs because the brain works by dividing events into stages, writes IflScience.
Scientific research
Scientists first became interested in this phenomenon back in 2011.
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have found that participants in the experiment, after passing through a doorway, forget information they remembered a few seconds ago.
This is how the theory emerged that the brain divides the experience it receives into separate fragments of events for the purpose of conveniently storing information.
When a person crosses the event horizon, something akin to a refresh occurs in the brain.
Roughly speaking, when a person finds himself in another room, he may lose connection with the information that his brain stored in the previous room.
The brain perceives the doorway itself as a boundary dividing events.
Research conducted in 2014 confirmed the scientists' findings. Moreover, it turned out that the effect works even if there is no door in the doorway.
And in 2021, an experiment was conducted with virtual reality. The "door" effect worked more often only under intense load on a person's memory.
As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that the reason was not in the door itself, but in the change in context.
And if, in addition, the brain is overloaded with information, then the chances of forgetting something important only increase.
