@AgentSapphire

1 week ago

Very Oversimplified:

The "walking into the kitchen and forgetting what you were doing" is called the doorway effect and its a glitch that happens due to the way our brains are set up.

Our short term memory is designed to throw out information when it no longer becomes relevant. So, for example, you're not still thinking about the pretty butterfly you saw outside your breakfast at mealtime when you arrive at school or at work. You're in a new place with new expectations. Its what allows us to change our focus to new things.

Our brains do this by dumping all non essential information when we move onto something "new". And because doorways are the dividing paths between rooms you are moving from an old room to a new one. So sometimes your brain dumps part of your short term memory because it was information you picked up in the old room. And now you're in the new room. This is also why turning around and quickly returning to the first room can bring the memory back sometimes. Because your brain isn't done getting rid of it and can recall and rebuild the memory.

Edit: As some have pointed out yes, this is still a theory. But it's the best educated guess we have at this moment because we don't fully understand it but we know we're in the right ballpark. It's the same way that gravity is a theory. We don't fully understand it yet, but parts we know are true in certain situations.

Edit2: And because people in the comments are being extremely pedantic with how I phrased my words, yes, I understand the difference between "substantiated theory" and "educated guess" and am taking linguistic liberties so that I can be more clear for the less scientifically inclined everyman as opposed to trying to be as accurate as possible (as the human brain and memory is extremely complex) in an explanation that is intended to be very simplified.

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