Forgetting About Something Essay

Have you ever experienced forgetting about something? Like where did you put your pair of socks, where did you leave your car keys, or where did you put your pen? Did you ever wonder why or how this happens? For a period of three (3) days, I tried to observe myself. I used to forget where I put my door key. I realized that I have forgotten where my key in three different situations: – When I need to get out of the room – When something reminded me about keys like doors and door knobs, and – When I saw the usual spot for my room key and the key is not there. As I have researched, forgetting, also called as cue-dependent forgetting, is the failure to recall a memory due to missing stimuli or cues that were present at the time the memory is encoded. There are factors why retrieval of the memory fails. Usually, the information no longer exist in the mind that why a material cannot be found or cannot be recalled. Emotions also play a crucial role. The reason why I forget where I leave my key is that I am always in a hurry. And as I have observed, there are also reasons why I manage to remember where my key is. First, whenever I forgot where my key is, I am in a hurry to get out of the room and I cannot think properly where I last put my key. Then, I remember to recall where I put my key because I saw an object that reminds me of my key such as doors and knobs. Lastly, when I manage to relax for a while and see if I have got everything in order, I tend to look at the spot where I place my key. Being an important object or simply because it is a personal belonging, I have a list on my mind where my important things are. Concluding the activity, when someone is in hurry or feeling excited, the tendency to forget is very possible because there is so much going on with our minds. But once we take time to relax, recall, or back track our activities earlier, we can avoid retrieval failure on our memories. Reference Baddeley, A. D. (1997). Human Memory: Theory and Practice. Taylor and Francis Group.