Can't Remember Things?
By: Rylee Blevins
Why I chose this topic
I chose this topic because i have a bad habit of forgetting things whether they are important or not. Researching this topic might help me come up with ways to remember things better than I do right now.
The part of the brain that is in charge of remembering things is the hippocampus. Our brains are made to forget information that we do not need. Studies show that if our brains were to remember everything we have ever seen, learned, done, or been taught, we would more than likely go crazy.
Why do we forget?
We forget things because our brain is trained to only remember important information that we need for our everyday lives. We don't need to know every single detail of everything we have ever seen but we can remember the big picture or main idea of it.
Trace Decay Theory
This theory states that memories in our brain fade away over time if we do not rehearse the memory. It will be forgotten and no longer available. This is why we will forget information that we learn in school after a few weeks but we do not forget how to ride bikes or how to swim. Once we have learned how to do something we typically won't forget it.
Retroactive Interference
This occurs when a new memory has interfered with an old memory and we are no longer able to recall the old memory. Examples of this are when you go from driving a stick shift car to an automatic, and then you can't remember how to drive a stick after a while.
Why Do We Forget Things?