Forgetting And The Science Behind It

At some point in our lives, we all have often wondered why we forget some things but remember the others. Why do you remember your friend’s birthday but suddenly forgot that you had an important exam coming up? Are some things easier to forget than others? Of course, the priority that we assign to each event determines whether we will remember it or not but the process of forgetting is complex. In this blog, we will talk about why we forget some things and the science behind forgetting. 

Do you know that there are people called mnemonists who have an exceptional memory ability? A.R Luria (1968) mentions the case of a famous mnemonist Mr. S who displayed an exceptional ability to remember lists of numbers within minutes. The problem, however, turned out that he was unable to forget these numbers, and generally all the things he remembered in life. He was unable to differentiate the important memories from trivial ones and ultimately he had to invent a way to “forget” things (which is ironic since we have to do the opposite!). It turns out that forgetting is crucial for us to feel sane. But how do we forget things?

Three processes might be responsible for forgetting-

  1. Encoding Failure: There are some things that you simply forget because you missed them or failed to encode them in your system in the first place. It might have happened when your father asked you to clean the table but you were doing something else, so it literally “skipped your mind” because what he said was not encoded in the first place. Despite having heard him, the information couldn’t get past your sensory memory because you weren't paying attention.

  2. Theory of Memory Trace Decay: According to this theory, whenever you learn something new a memory trace is formed. A memory trace might be a physical change in the brain, neuron, or neural activity. Over time, if these memory traces aren’t used they decay or “fade away”. An example of trace decay might be the lyrics to a song that you used to remember as a child but you didn’t recall for many years due to which you now are not able to recall it. This theory can explain how forgetting takes place in sensory and short-term memory however, when referring to the long-term memory it is called disuse theory.

  3. Interference Theory: A very relatable and logical explanation of forgetting might be the interference you experience when you are trying to remember something. An example might be the new song that keeps playing in your head when you are trying to revise a previously learned concept. According to this theory, we are unable to retrieve information from our system because other information interferes. This interference can be of two types -

(i)Proactive interference takes place when older or previously learned material interferes with new learning and retrieval. When you are trying to remember your new phone number, the digits from your old number keep popping up is an example of proactive interference. 

(ii) Retroactive Interference takes place when newer information interferes with the retrieval of older information. When you are trying to recall the word for “man” in French, Spanish words keep coming up in your head because you recently learned Spanish is an example of retroactive interference.


The science of memory and forgetting is both interesting and complex. Forgetting is usually a natural process and it might be frustrating for us at some point in our lives but we need to realize that it is almost impossible (and even unhealthy) for our brain to remember huge amounts of information. Our brain needs to let go of some information to make room for new information as we go or it might deplete its functioning. 

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