The Psychology of Forgetting and Why Memory Fails

The Wisdom Daily 🦉

By

Kendra Cherry

Medically reviewed by
Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, FAAN

Forgetting is an all too common part of daily life. Sometimes these memory slips are simple and fairly innocuous, such as forgetting to return a phone call. Other times, forgetting can be much more dire and even have serious consequences, such as an eyewitness forgetting important details about a crime.

Memory failures are an almost daily occurrence. Forgetting is so common that you probably rely on numerous methods to help you remember important information, such as jotting down notes in a daily planner or scheduling important events on your phone's calendar.

As you are frantically searching for your missing car keys, it may seem that the information about where you left them is permanently gone from your memory. However, forgetting is generally not about actually losing or erasing this information from your long-term memory.

src: https://www.verywellmind.com/forgetting-about-psychology-2795034