Today I had breakfast with Yuri, a good friend who has just moved to Manhattan for a year to complete his internship at a local hospital.
He arrived a month ago and was busy getting settled and getting his bearings.
We had a lot of catching up to do and at the end of our time together we exchanged phone numbers to keep in contact while I'm here.
It was rather funny how, even if he had repeated his number at least 3 other times during the morning to other people, when the moment came to give it to me, he still couldn't remember it and had to look it up.
It turned out that he had just gotten a new number a couple of days before and still was in the habit of recalling the old number.
Has something like that ever happened to you?
I usually have the same problem with expired computer passwords after the old ones expire.
I tend to type the old one because I am so used to do it and it's only at the 2nd or 3rd try that I remember that I have a new password.
We had a lot of catching up to do and at the end of our time together we exchanged phone numbers to keep in contact while I'm here.
It was rather funny how, even if he had repeated his number at least 3 other times during the morning to other people, when the moment came to give it to me, he still couldn't remember it and had to look it up.
It turned out that he had just gotten a new number a couple of days before and still was in the habit of recalling the old number.
Has something like that ever happened to you?
I usually have the same problem with expired computer passwords after the old ones expire.
I tend to type the old one because I am so used to do it and it's only at the 2nd or 3rd try that I remember that I have a new password.
If you are wondering why, do not worry, it is not because you're getting old (though, strictly speaking, you are!) but it is because the brain is competing to recall old and new memories both associated with the same thing.
What happens is that the memory gets cluttered with similar events and it becomes difficult for the brain to distinguish between old and new information as it was used to only have one set of data and now there are multiple, so it will take time for the brain to adjust.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) shows that quite well, I discovered through a bit of internet research!
Researchers at Yale and Stanford university led a study asking subjects to recall different faces and scenes (the memory of these items are stored in different areas of the brain) the scan found that blood flowed to both areas simultaneously creating a competition.
So, until when the brain will get used to recall the most recent information associated to a certain aspect or situation in life, confusion is likely to happen.
Now I understand why those few times that I change the place where I park my car it takes me ages then to find it again!!!
Researchers at Yale and Stanford university led a study asking subjects to recall different faces and scenes (the memory of these items are stored in different areas of the brain) the scan found that blood flowed to both areas simultaneously creating a competition.
So, until when the brain will get used to recall the most recent information associated to a certain aspect or situation in life, confusion is likely to happen.
Now I understand why those few times that I change the place where I park my car it takes me ages then to find it again!!!
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