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In most workshops of Prima Memory, a program intended to boost one’s memorizing ability, often times people ask me about the phenomenon of forgetting. The questions people asked are almost alike; such as why do they forget a lot, how to remember more, how to omit forgetting and other questions related.
One of the earliest scientists who study scientifically about forgetting is Hermann Ebbinghaus, which dated back in 1800’s. In 1885, he published his groundbreaking Über das Gedächtnis (“On Memory”, later translated to English as Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology) in which he described experiments he conducted on himself to describe the processes of learning and forgetting.
You might think that forgetting is bad, since you have to face risks caused by this. But, is it true that forgetting is bad? If not, can you be benefited from forgetting? Well your answer to those questions might be “yes” and “no”. To grasp a better understanding, this latest study on forgetting might worth to look at.
According to the latest study about forgetting, conducted by Stanford University Scientists, forgetting not only helps the brain conserve energy, it also improves our sort-term memory and recall of important details. The team asked students to study 240 word- pairs and then structured them to memorize only a small subset of the list, requiring the students to selectively retain some pairs and mentally discard others. Those who could most often summon the target pairs were also the worst at remembering the others, suggesting that they were better at unconsciously filtering out unwanted memories.
Then the researchers performed MRI scans on the participants while testing them to see how well they learned all the pairs. These subjects’ MRI scans; the ones who could most often summon the target pairs showed reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area associated with detecting and resolving memory conflicts.
Asked to explain this finding in plain English, psychologist Anthony Wagner, a co-author of the paper, says, “When we want to remember things that are relevant, we put in much less neural effort if we have forgotten the things that are irrelevant.”
This finding suggests that memory suppression helps to conserve energy and improve efficiency; hence this makes you think smarter. Some researches also back up this conclusion by indicating that efficient brain think faster.
So, it’s practically OK when you forget sometimes, as long you’re not forgetting the very most important facts such as your wife/husband. Don’t even dare to think about it 
