Forgetting names, faces, and other things is a universal, and aggravating, experience. But new research has good news: Such forgetting may help your brain function at its best.
, Small argues that fading memories aren’t always the scourge we think—in fact, some amount of forgetfulness is critical for our minds and relationships to function at their best. Small spoke withYou argue that normal, nonpathological forgetting isn’t a glitch, but rather an adaptation. Why?
If our environments were like Groundhog Day—every day was identical—we would want a perfect memory. But because we live in a noisy, ever-fluctuating world, forgetting details is actually a perfect adaptation. It allows our brains to generalize. People think, for instance, that if they had a photographic memory, they would remember all faces. And they might recognize all faces in mugshots—but they wouldn’t recognize those faces if they were in a different light, or shaven vs. unshaven, et cetera. Their brain would trip so much on the differences that it would miss the sameness. We need memory—but only if we sculpt it with some forgetting.
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