study: Walking through doorways causes forgetting

Mari · 11-22-2011, 07:13 PM

Hi,

According to this article, and the study it references, we sometimes forget things when we pass through door ways or other types of boundaries:

Walking Through Doorways Causes Forgetting, New Research Shows
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/27476-wa...esearch-shows/

Quote:

Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains.

“Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.”

Quote:

Radvansky found that the subjects forgot more after walking through a doorway compared to moving the same distance across a room, suggesting that the doorway or “event boundary” impedes one’s ability to retrieve thoughts or decisions made in a different room.

This makes perfect sense because I have noticed this before.
I'm so excited!! Yeah. Sometimes I have to find my pleasure where I can.

Here's the link to the abstract of the actual study:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m6lq80675m22232h/

Quote:

We investigated the ability of people to retrieve information about objects as they moved through rooms in a virtual space. People were probed with object names that were either associated with the person (i.e., carried) or dissociated from the person (i.e., just set down). Also, people either did or did not shift spatial regions (i.e., go to a new room). Information about objects was less accessible when the objects were dissociated from the person.
Furthermore, information about an object was also less available when there was a spatial shift.

However, the spatial shift had a larger effect on memory for the currently associated object. These data are interpreted as being more supportive of a situation model explanation, following on work using narratives and film.
Simpler memory-based accounts that do not take into account the context in which a person is embedded cannot adequately account for the results.

M.

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