I always forget what I was going to do: psychology reveals why

I always forget what I was going to do: psychology reveals why

August 12, 2025 – 20:00

If you want what you were to do, science has the answer you were looking for.

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It is very usual that you have super clear what you are going to do and when you get to the place, Your mind is blank. A situation is generated in which one feels confused, in which we try to remember what we had planned, but the truth is that the idea does not always return to us.

From psychology they call this phenomenon threshold effect, And it is a Mechanism of the mind that is activated when environmental is changed. A kind of interruption is generated in access to the information we had less than two seconds ago.

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Why do we forget what we are going to do, according to psychology

This call “threshold effect” It refers to the trend of the mind to segment the information when changing places. When we move from one room to another, the brain can interpret that One task ended and another is starting. This is what causes that forgetfulness.

This phenomenon It was first studied as such in 2006, and received its name only in 2011that is 5 years later. The experiment was like this: the participants had to memorize objects from one room and then move on to another. What demonstrated the results was that The ability to remember these objects decreased when it passed from one room to the other. They tried this in a virtual environment and the same thing happened.

All this is explained by understanding the relationship between semantic memory, that is responsible for concepts, and episodic memorywhich is responsible for places and contexts. The mind associates what we think with the environment in which we do it, so when it changes location, the contextual keys are modified and the information that was had becomes inaccessible.

This is why sometimes we do not recognize people from our life when we find it in unusual places: the brain does not have these two associated elements so it can take a bit to associate concept with context.

Alan BaddeleyBritish psychologist and pioneer in Memory studiesdemonstrated this in 1970. He carried out an experiment in which some divers memorized words below the water and on the mainland. Most obtained better results if he remembered the words in the place where he memorized them. This confirmed that the context directly influences the ability to remember.

It should be clarified, that These forgetfulness are not related to any cognitive impairment. This phenomenon affects young people and older adults equally. It is only a consequence of how information is organized and tasks are prioritized in the brain. Experts say that being in Multitarian mode also contributes to these forgetfulness: when you are in more than one thing at the same time ideas can be lost as the scene is changed.

A curious fact is that This threshold effect can favor the learning process. When the environment is changed, the brain updates the so -called contextual keys and decreases interference with previous tasks, which facilitates the processing of the new information.

Source: Ambito

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