The Benefits of Forgetting
The New York Times has a piece, Forgetting May Be Part of the Process of Remembering, that is sure to bring at least a small sign of relief to some of us.
Studies are pointing to the fact that we may not be forgetting, but, that distracting memories are set aside:
researchers reported on Sunday that the ability to block certain memories reduces the demands on the brain when it is trying to recall something important.
Furthermore:
In all, this research suggests that memories are more often crowded out than lost. An ideal memory improvement program, Dr. Anderson said, “would include a course on how to impair your memory. Your head is full of a surprising number of things that you don’t need to know.”
The findings should also reduce some of the anxiety surrounding “senior moments,” researchers say. Some names, numbers and details are hard to retrieve not because memory is faltering, but because it is functioning just as it should.
Wow, so, there may be some truth to my theory that I’d be a lot smarter if it weren’t for the old telephone numbers and song lyrics vying for position in my head.
Song lyrics. What a hoot!
The now-retired humor columnist Dave Barry once observed that it is surprising easy to exert mind control over a Baby Boomer. All you have to do, he claimed, is say (or sing) the words, “Come ‘n’ listen to my story ’bout a man named Jed…”
At this point, the Boomer brain is, without exception, filled with the words, “A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.”
Neither I nor anyone else on earth needs to know these lyrics. But we Boomers do. Every single one of us.
I’d like to be able to free up the neurons involved in that to remember, say, my daughter’s telephone number. But that choice doesn’t seem to be offered.
I think this article is good for those who have trouble remembering things that they need to remember such as information for tests or phone numbers, addresses, names of friends and job related task information given by bosses or supervisors. Forgetting is great when you know you don’t need to remember un-necessary things, but when you cannot remember facts that are pertinent to you then you have a chance of not succeeding in what you are meant to achieve in.
Question: How does one prevent forgetting or set aside the un-necessary information and keep the pertinent information at the forefront of their cognitive memory?