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Each of us has entered a room at some point and realized we've forgotten completely why we did so.
Experts have revealed that these so-called 'brain farts' are not anything to be concerned about — in fact, they are the result of a perfectly normal brain response to new surroundings.
Specifically, this is known as the 'doorway effect,' states Christian Jarrett, who is both a cognitive neuroscientist and an author.
This occurs due to our brain’s natural tendency to categorise tasks and data according to environmental settings, like different rooms or locations.
Jarrett mentioned that our brains experience a slight reset when we move from one room to another. BBC Science Focus, leading thoughts from the preceding chamber to fade away.
Jarrett referred to the findings of the University of Queensland study that explored the doorway effect.
'They found that passing through doorways that joined identical rooms mostly didn’t impact memory – perhaps because there wasn’t enough of a changed context to create a significant event boundary,' he said.
'It was only when these researchers distracted their volunteers with a simultaneous secondary task that the doorways between identical rooms affected memory.'
The effect is much more likely, he posed, when there is a significant change in context – for instance, if you leave your living room for the garden.
He went on: "The Queensland squad mentioned that this aligns with common experiences, as it tends to happen mainly when we're preoccupied with other thoughts and not paying full attention, leading us to enter a room and then forgetting why we did so."
Jarrett mentioned that the discoveries could also indicate a possible solution that might stop the issue.
'When you go through a door for an errand, try to keep your objective in mind,' he advised, suggesting that noting something on the back of your hand might prove helpful.
Jarrett’s observations align with those of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, who in 2016 carried out an investigation revealing insights into how the brain organizes information akin to a filing cabinet system.
The researchers contended that once we leave a room, events and memories get ‘stored away’ as though filed under different sections or chapters, much like sequential episodes.
According to the study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, doorways serve as a type of catalyst for this phenomenon.
A group of American scientists requested participants to utilize computer keys for exploring 55 'digital' chambers, ranging from spacious to compact.
Each room contained one or two tables, with objects that the volunteers had to pick up, carry to the next room and set down on a table again.
The moment they grabbed the items, the objects vanished.
Throughout the test, they were presented with the name of an object and asked if it was the one they were currently carrying, or the one they had already put down.
The results showed memory performance dipped markedly once they had passed through a doorway, rather than when they covered the same distance but remained in the same room.
To confirm the findings in real life, rather than on a computer, the team set up a similar environment of rooms and tables - hiding the objects in boxes the volunteers carried.
Again, the researchers found participants were more likely to forget what they had in the box once they walked through a door into the next room.
According to a report of their discoveries, scientists mentioned that transitioning to a different setting might overwhelm the brain’s working memory, making it difficult to remember why one initially entered a space.
The report indicated that additional data 'burdens and continuously increases the information load on the working memory.'
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