Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Remember to Forget


Forgetting is an easy way out for two reasons. First, it's safer than holding a grudge on a person who dared to say how hypocrisy stinks from the sweet tooth. Fact like stabbing your back with tender loving care is pretty much disturbing. Hatred seems to be relevant specially to those with so much love in their hearts. Well, for god so loved the world that he even gave his only son to save it is the same god who created the eternal fire and damnation.


Second, it's better than remembering that despite the self-proclaimed importance, in the end, it is still good. Unfortunately, good for nothing. Not knowing everything does not mean one does not know something. Because that's the point of remembering.


It seems counter-intuitive, but being good at “forgetting” is what allows some people to have a great memory. During the study, the more efficient participants were at forgetting irrelevant data, the more accurate their memory became in terms of energy expended.


The study utilized a word-memorization test to demonstrate that the brain chooses to remember memories it thinks are most relevant, while it actively suppresses similar, but less used information. This process seems to lighten the cognitive load and helps prevent confusion.


"Whenever you’re engaging in remembering, the brain adapts. It’s constantly re-weighting memories," says team-member Brice Kuhl, "In this simple test, we see it reverse memory to weaken competing memories. This is something that probably happens a lot in the real world."


In essence, the brain could not work quickly and efficiently if it did not have the capacity to forget what it determines as irrelevant. The human brain doesn’t like to be cluttered with what it deems unnecessary information. That may be why many of us can’t remember most of what we learned in college algebra.,


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