Why do we forget?

Hypermnezichesky memory

When we suffer from forgetting we start to wish: let our memory will be omnipotent not to forget even the most insignificant details. However it is difficult to present to itself what would become our life if all was necessary to keep in memory heard and seen within day. Cases when people possessed ability to remember all seen or heard have been described. About such people say, that at them hypermnesya. The Most known case has been described in Russian Neuropsychology 1969 by Alexander Romanovichem Lurija, the ancestor of neuropsychology the person. Somebody Chereshnevsky, possessing improbable abilities to storing (it appears in the scientific literature as simply «B») Worked as the journalist. At the moment of acquaintance with Luria to it there were 30 years. Chereshnevsky was capable to remember the information to within the slightest details. It could remember pages of words or the tables consisting only from figures, and absolutely precisely to reproduce them in 10 years. However, as mentions Luria in «the Brain of the person and mental processes" (1963), at gipermnezicheskoy memories are the lacks. When Chereshnevsky read the text, it had to transform at image each detail from the read. Besides reading appeared long and tiresome, built images mixed up at it in a head in such a manner that stirred to correct understanding of the text. Hence, though it also was capable to remember not only all details, but even the most insignificant, the general sense read completely escaped it. All owners gipermnezicheskoy memories have tested something similar to volume, that has tested Chereshnevsky. They spend the days remembering, for example, the maintenance of the telephone directory or difficult combinations of numbers, putting on trial the memory. Nevertheless very often they feel embarrassed or unadapted to the validity because of the exaggerated ability to keep the information which sometimes even absolutely not is not possessing any value.

To Forget not to be sated

Detaining a considerable quantity of the insignificant information, memory is transformed to slowly operating overloaded system in which usually there are problems. Forgetting with not possessing importance of the information allows more important given to be allocated against less considerable information. In this context it is easy to guess, that forgetting can be considered as normal and useful function for correct functioning of daily memory. Indemnification of forgetting, i.e. Representation about that is important, is relative enough concept and can be transformed depending on situation change. Thus, the choice of the information which will be forgotten, is, agrees to the given definition, always imperfect, at least partially. As a rule, the person forgets not to overload the memory a little with the significant information.