Most all of us humanoids have experienced the baffling experience of having some specific chore on our minds as we walk into a room, are distracted by a phone call while on our iPads, driving without the guidance of electronic devices, etc. and we suddenly lose track of our intentions. Based on a recent article on the subject, it seems as though our brain has been creating mental bookmarks called event boundaries, dividing our day into distinct before-and-after sections for easier recall. For example, as we move from room to room through our doorways, our brain perceives a change in environment, triggering a change in boundaries. Things usually go as planned unless we become distracted.
For example, we may be on a mission to Google a question
when we are interrupted by a call. When
we finish the call, we can no longer recall what we were searching for on the
Internet. Or we have every intention to
walk into the study for a ball point pen when we are distracted by noticing a
stack of papers that need our immediate attention. In all these cases, the brain has been distracted
by the sensations we perceive as we enter any new event boundary, losing the memory
that sent us there in the first place.
Once the memory is out of reach, the only recourse might be to retrace our steps to the beginning of our quest on the iPad or in the room whose doorway exit caused us to lose our initial objective. Or we could simply focus on not being distracted before we achieve our initial objective!
No comments:
Post a Comment