Ever wondered why you seem to forget things in spite of taking extra measures to remember the same. Chances are you might be experiencing one of these four major causes of forgetfulness.
You didn’t store things properly
Failing to note or absorb something correctly may cause you to forget it easily later on. In other cases, giving attention to only the major details can make it harder for you to recollect the minor details.
Let’s take a small example. You might have seen a coin several times. Try recollecting how the coin would look and draw it on a piece of paper. Chances are you might be able to recollect the shape of the coin along with the head and tail portions, but would not be able to recollect the minor details like the imprints on the sides of the coin. This essentially means that while only the major details of the coin were embedded in your memory, the minor details were not.
You fail to retrieve and rehearse
Pieces of information in the memory can vanish completely if you don’t retrieve and rehearse them often.
For example, let’s say you want to watch a T.V. program that would be telecasted at a certain point of time on one particular day. You create a place in your memory where you store the details of the program along with the day and time it is going to be telecasted.
Unless you keep refreshing that particular memory slot frequently, you are bound to forget it completely or miss out important pieces. So if you don’t keep reminding yourself about the TV program, chances are you might forget it altogether or forget the date or time or both when you try to recollect the details.
You store too many things at the same time
Trying to cram too many memories into your head at the same time can make you forget some of them later. This is usually the case when the items that you try to memorize are either similar or related to each other in certain aspects.
Here’s an example. You go to the supermarket to get some groceries. Unless you have a list, there are strong chances that you might end up forgetting to buy certain items you had previously intended to. There is also a strong possibility that you would end up confusing the individual quantities of the groceries you intend to buy.
