It is not uncommon for someone to experience sudden forgetfulness or forgetting that it has become part of their daily life. Whether it’s forgetting small things such as a place to store keys, glasses, wallets and other items, people’s names and faces, forgetting promises or forgetting information that has been learned in the past. Sometimes we also often forget what to do in the middle of an activity. Forgetting too often can indicate a disturbance in memory, but forgetting within reasonable limits can actually make the brain smarter.
The brain works as a series that communicate with each other at all times. Forgetting occurs because there is a break from communication, which interferes with the ability to focus on one thing. The decreased ability to remember can be caused by distraction or distraction. When a person tries to remember something, new networks are formed in the brain to help with the memory process.
Forgetting to Be a Sign of Intelligence
The part of the brain that regulates cognition and controls memory according to purpose is the prefrontal cortex, which is located behind the forehead. In this area, the memory that is owned will be changed in two directions, namely stronger or weaker. The cause of forgetting is a weaker memory. In several studies, it has been shown that forgetting something is normal and can actually make you smarter. Reasons why forgetting can make you smart include:
- Retain important information
Forgetting usually occurs because old memories are replaced by new ones, due to the formation of new brain cells that form in the hippocampus area associated with the process of learning new things. The old memory will be difficult to access because the new cells overwrite it. Replacing old memories with new ones will allow you to retain important information and let go of less important information. Know about the types of memory in communication psychology , examples of long-term memory and examples of cases of short-term memory .
- Adjusting to new situations
Old information that is discarded and replaced with new information will make it easier for you to adjust to new situations, which of course gives your brain a lot of new information flow. Without the old information that is less relevant, you will not be confused to determine which information in the brain can be used.
- Make the right decisions
Forgetting old information to replace new information will help you make the right decisions. The reason why forgetting can make you smart is that by forgetting old unrelated information, the brain can freely process the information it needs according to current circumstances.
- Make it easy to learn from experience
Even if your brain has thrown away old memories or memories, you can still remember the big picture of past events or information. This description will help to introspect and learn from experience in order to make the right decisions and not to repeat mistakes that have been made and to better face various problems.
- Get rid of misleading information
The reason forgetting makes you smart is that when your brain releases outdated information, it allows us to adapt to new situations. By forgetting old and potentially misleading information, it will be easier for us to maneuver in an environment that is constantly changing. If you try to live your life and are constantly exposed to misleading information, confusing and overlapping memories, it will become increasingly difficult to make the right decisions.
- Facilitate decision making
The reasons why forgetting can make you smart can also make the decision-making process easier by helping us generalize past events to current events. You may not remember significant details but only important information. This simple memory makes it easier to predict new experiences based on past experiences.
- Throw away useless information
Making smart decisions doesn’t mean you have to have all the information at once, it just means that you need to know the most valuable information. That means clearing space in your memory for the most recent information. Forgetting is a process of throwing away this information so that your brain will only store data that will be helpful and relevant to the present.
- Help see the big picture
When you forget names or details, the brain is making the choice that the details don’t really matter. Researchers found that the human brain facilitates decision-making by stopping us from focusing too much on less important details of the past. Instead, the brain promotes generalizations to help remember the most important aspects. One of the things that differentiates the environment you will want to remember from the one in which you want to forget things is how consistent the environment is and how likely it is for certain events to come back into your life.
- Maintain reality
The more you forget about facts, the more likely it is that your brain will work on adding the most relevant information to a more general picture, which is the true perception of reality. The brain will focus on the bigger picture of the amount of information that can be the basis for making better decisions. Also know about memory in psychology , types of memory in cognitive psychology , and forms of memory in psychology .
- Provide a place for new memory
Forgetting is the brain’s mechanism to discard old information that is no longer relevant to be used to make room for new information. Often our minds will get new information that is more relevant to current conditions, and in order for this information to be used, old information that is no longer connected must be discarded.
- Shows broad interest
A person who is constantly acquiring new information and insights means that he likes to find out about various things and thus will continue to rack his brain for new information. When the information is entered, the old memory will certainly accumulate and the person will forget it in order to process the new knowledge that enters his brain. The reason why forgetting can make you smart is because someone who is constantly looking for additional knowledge is someone who likes to learn new things to sharpen his brain.
- Smart sorting information
Sorting out information that is no longer useful will make the brain forget that information. The reason why forgetting makes you smart is because your brain is no longer distracted by the insignificant details of the information it stores, so it is free to process new information without being distracted by old, misleading information.
- Can think more clearly
The change of information from old to new in the brain will make a person think more clearly about the situation he is facing because he is not disturbed by confusing and misleading information, which does not match what is needed in his latest situation.
- More calm emotionally
The ability to separate facts and unrelated information is one reason forgetting can make you smart. The absence of distraction from confusing information will help a person better maintain and control his emotional state which will help solve the problem better.
- Easy to think objectively
The distraction from the mixing of facts and old memories makes it difficult for a person to think objectively. Forgetting some insignificant aspects of the past will aid in the process of thinking objectively and easily resolving problems completely.
Why the Brain Has Difficulty Remembering
The difficulty of the brain to remember is not only caused by the entry of new information. There are several factors beyond the addition of this information that affect the difficulty of remembering, including:
- Consumption of saturated fat –Without realizing it, the process of remembering can be influenced by your daily diet. Excess saturated fat, cholesterol, glucose can make blood vessels around the brain vulnerable to damage and high blood pressure.
- Rarely exercise –Exercise can make the brain drain blood more optimally. If done regularly, it will be able to improve memory and also the ability to think by reducing insulin levels in the body, reducing inflammation, and stimulating growth hormone, chemicals in the brain, growth of blood vessels in the brain, and increasing the defense of newly formed brain cells.
- Bad lifestyle –Smoking and drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs will impair memory because it reduces the flow of oxygen to the brain. Use of illegal drugs can also impair memory abilities because chemicals in the brain are replaced by these substances, making it difficult to recall.
- Lack of sleep –During sleep, the brain produces waves to store memories. If you are sleep deprived, your brain memory will not reach the prefrontal cortex, so it will be easier for you to forget things.
- Depression or stress –When experiencing depression or stress, the mind will experience over stimulation so that the ability to remember is reduced.
- Age –The ability to remember will also decrease with age, although there is research that says that memory loss is not part of getting older. Because the brain will always produce new cells at any age. So what is more accurate is the term delayed memory, and not memory loss.
The reasons why forgetting can make you smart can be relevant if forgetting only happens occasionally, and you don’t have to force yourself when it does. However, if you are very forgetful and have difficulty remembering anything without the above signs, then you need to be aware of it. Excessive forgetting indicates that there could be a problem with your brain or memory, so consultation with a specialist is needed as a further step.
