The Doorway Effect

When did you last walk from one room to another, only to forget why you’re there? I do it several times a day. Our brains, finite but efficient, use environmental clues to help choose what to remember. When the setting changes—a different room, for example—they tend to wipe the slate clean to make space for something new. Psychologists call it the doorway effect.

The problem is not so much how to retrieve a memory as how to record it in the first place. I try to follow at least a couple of these tips before I reach the doorway:

1. Pay attention. Heading to the kitchen for a coffee refill is so habitual I do it almost by rote. Thinking the words “I am getting coffee” makes it conscious.
2. Visualize. When I picture going into the kitchen and lifting the coffeepot, the change of environment at the doorway becomes less abrupt.
3. Carry a reminder. It may not be as obvious as an empty mug for coffee, but an empty envelope or a toothbrush could signal other intentions.

Now, why did I come in here to the computer?