Sometimes, I walk into a room to get something, but the moment I step in, I completely forget what I needed. Then, if I walk back where I started, I suddenly remember “Oh right, I need my phone!”
This weird little brain glitch is called the “doorway effect” But why does crossing a threshold make my memory reset? If the thing I needed is still important, why would my brain just erase everything?
Does this happen only with physically spaces, or does it also happen when switching between task mentally?
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You can’t remember every detail of every place you’ve ever been, so your mind compartmentalizes your spaces. If you’re in the kitchen and think, “I need to get my glasses off of the coffee table in the living room” this thought takes place in the kitchen where the fridge and food, etc is. When you walk into the living room with the TV, couch, etc you mind now was a strong inventory of details of that room. The problem is that the thought happened in the kitchen, and you don’t currently need to know much about the kitchen so you can’t remember it.
Doorways are like save points for your memories.
You have too much on your mind is all.
Some will tell you you have ADHD
Wrinkly electric meat blob sometimes don’t work good
The “doorway effect” happens because your brain processes events in chunks, and crossing a physical threshold signals a context shift. Your memory is optimized to prioritize what’s relevant in the moment, so when you move to a new space, your brain basically refreshes its working memory to focus on the new environment. That’s why walking back to where you started can help, you’re reactivating the original context where the thought first formed. It’s not just physical spaces either, it can happen when switching between mental tasks too, like when you forget what you were about to say mid-conversation.
I recall reading a study some time ago where they showed people an abstract image and asked them to walk to other side of the room and recreate it from memory. People who had to walk into a different room, even if the door was already open where significantly worse at the task.
It’s thought that your brain declutters when you enter a new area to make space for what you might experience there. But it can also have the unintended side effect of forgetting why you went on there to begin with.
There was a study done that concluded that the visual act of walking though a doorway resets your short term memory.
Something to do with cavemen walking out of caves and needing to be aware of predators.
Our memory is very deeply associated with location, for one. Also, for me at least, I find that a thought is often triggered by something in my environment, not randomly, so by going back to where I had the thought, I may trigger the same thought process and rediscover it.
This happens to me when I open a new browser tab to Google something. I have to go back to the previous tab to jog my memory as to what, exactly, I was planning to Google.
Humans still have a mind from a time when we were hunter gatherers, which are operating in a modern world, which can sometimes cause issues. The hunter gatherer mind had difficulty when suddenly moving from one environment to another, like say emerging from a cave or hut into the savannah, or coming out of a forest into a clearing. The first thing the brain needs to do is check that the new environment is safe; to do this the eyes very rapidly scan round with the eyes flicking faster than they can be consciously controlled. The superior colliculus or optic lobe takes over control of your eyes as the conscious mind can’t move the eyes quick enough to follow the objects and basically flick the eyes from one location to another. In something called saccadic masking https://youtu.be/mzUn58Nf4gM Once you are sure there are no tigers waiting to ambush you normal vision and thoughts return in that short space of time some short term memories may be suppressed as the active mind was doing other things.
The “doorway effect” happens because your brain treats crossing a threshold as a reset, like starting fresh in a new space. When you walk into a room, your brain shifts focus to the new environment, making it easy to forget why you went in there in the first place.
This effect isn’t just physical, it can also happen when switching between tasks mentally. Your brain temporarily forgets what you were just doing to focus on the new task or environment, and once you step back into the original space or task, the memory often comes back.