You Can Not Afford Lapses of Memory in Your Intelligence Tests- Otherwise Being Forgetful is a Healthy Sign

Some people think that being forgetful is a disease. However, the latest research in the field proves that lapses of memory are a blessing at times. It is no more a poetic desire but scientifically proven results that when you face memory lapses to remember minor details, your brain is working to solve some complicated questions. You can't forget a quoted incident of Einstein when he forgot to count his returned coins correctly while traveling in a tram. 

Jonathan O' Callaghan has pointed out in his scholarly article that when you face lapses of memory to remember unimportant details, it is a sign that your brain is working to forget useless information. He refers to the latest research conducted by the University of Toronto, Canada, that growth of new neurons promote forgetfulness. He quotes from  journal "Neuron" as:

“We always idealize the person who can smash a trivia game, but the point of memory is not being able to remember who won the Stanley Cup in 1972,” said Professor Blake Richards from the University of Toronto, lead author on the study, in a statement. 

“The point of memory is to make you an intelligent person who can make decisions given the circumstances, and an important aspect in helping you do that is being able to forget some information.” 

He refers to another experiment when researchers use functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) to monitor brains of a group of adults to discover that "people were better at remembering conflicting information, rather than repeat or easy information."

Benefits of Lapses of Memory

While discussing benefits of being forgetful, he says:

"There are several benefits to this. For one, the brain wants to get rid of old useless information, like an old password. If it’s constantly bringing up old things you don’t need anymore, it’s harder to make a concrete decision. It also makes it easier for us to generalize previous events, like multiple visits to a shop, rather than remembering every specific detail from each visit."

Should You Worry about Your Being Forgetful?

The answer is, "It depends." It's no more poetic saying that being forgetful is a blessing. A lot of scientific and psychological research has been conducted to dig out that being forgetful is healthy in your daily routine life. However, showing lapses of memory may be dangerous when you are passing through a psychological test. You need to learn techniques which can help you to manage different pieces of information coherently to recall whenever you need. 

Original Source: Jonathan O' Callaghan

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