"Forgetting Things Could Actually Be Making You Smarter"
QUICK TAKEAWAY?
"So why is the brain spending time trying to make us forget? Richards and Frankland think there are two reasons.
One, forgetting helps us adjust to new situations by letting go of memories we don't need – so if your favourite coffee shop has moved to the other side of town, forgetting its old location helps you remember the new one.
Second, forgetting allows us to generalise past events to help us make decisions about new ones, a concept known in artificial intelligence as regularisation. If you just remember the main gist of your previous visits to the coffee shop rather than every little detail, then it's less work for your brain to work out how to behave the next time you go in.
"If you're trying to navigate the world and your brain is constantly bringing up multiple conflicting memories, that makes it harder for you to make an informed decision," says Richards.
The researchers also think the amount of forgetting we do could depend on the environment, with a faster pace of change requiring a faster pace of forgetting too."
For full article, see: http://www.sciencealert.com/forgetfulness-could-just-be-the-brain-wiping-useless-memories
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