by Gord Hotchkiss
Ever open the door to the fridge and then forget what you were looking for?
Or ever head to your bedroom and then, upon entering it, forget why you went there in the first place?
Me too. And it turns out we’re not alone. New
research from the University of Notre Dame’s Gabriel Radvansky indicates this sudden “threshold” amnesia is actually pretty common. Walking from one room to another triggers an “event boundary” in the mind, which seems to act as a cue for the brain to file away short-term memories and move on to the next task at hand. If your tasks causes you to cross one of these event boundaries and you don’t keep your working memory actively engaged through deliberate focusing of attention, it could be difficult to remember what it was that motivated you in the first place.