Memory Possibly Augmented by Forgetfulness

In a research paper published in the Association for Psychological Science's (APS) journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, scientists explain that, under certain conditions, forgetting things may in fact augment memory as a whole, rather than hamper it.

Forgetfulness is an often-overlooked component of memory, an integrated part of the overall process, investigators say. One possible explanation for why this happens is that memory and thinking are extremely difficult and resource-intensive processes.

As it is, the human brain consumes a vast portion of the resources the body has at its disposal at any given time. Senses such as sight demand a lot of energy to function properly, as do engaging in abstract thought, and creating the neural pathways required to store new memories.

According to researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago, it's time that forgetfulness is included in the list of memory components that play an important role in our ability to store and recall data, experiences, faces, feelings and so on. The research team was led by professor Ben Storm, PhD.

It is entirely possible that the human brain learned to forget things partially because memories and their related concept associations accumulate rapidly inside neural pathways, threatening to overload them. As such, it is beneficial for the brain to dump the amount of data that it cannot process efficiently.

“These things could completely overrun our life and make it impossible to learn and retrieve new things if they were left alone, and could just overpower the rest of memory,” the researcher explains.

“We’re able to get around these strong competing inappropriate memories to remember the ones we want to recall,” Storm adds. In order to help it decide which memories are worth keeping and which must go, the brain uses categories, and assigns values of importance to all new data it accumulates.

Understanding the mind's ability to recall things precisely, while also staying on point, is one of the main goals in neuroscience today. “We need to be able to update our memory so we can remember and think about the things that are currently relevant,” Storm explains, quoted by PsychCentral.

An example of a case where forgetting things is beneficial is the daily routine. Remembering what happened along the way everyday, or where you parked your car ever single day since you started working at a new company is an easy way to drive someone insane.

Fortunately, the brain learned to handle such issues. An added benefit to this behavior is that it keeps its energy demands as low as possible, avoiding to exert extra pressure on the body to supply it with extra nutrients, oxygen and energy.