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Doorway effect

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Re: Doorway effect

#31

Post by shermantanktop »

temp0826 wrote: post #12
interroboink wrote: post #3

I clicked to add a comment, but as soon as the page changed I forgot what I was going to write ... ---- Seriously though, happens to me all the time. Not sure if just getting dotty. The connection between spatial presence and memory is an interesting one; see also Memory Palaces[1] It makes me wonder if it's different for people totally blind since birth. Is the visual aspect important, or just the "spacial-ness"? [1…

I was joking with someone who was asking about getting a walking pad for their standing desk that it would be psychologically disastrous for this reason, citing the ancient Greeks memorizing epic poems by walking places to make memory associations. Why would one purposely want to have an association made between something as mundane/regular as walking with working at a screen?!

Sounds like a very hot key in your memory hashmap.

Re: Doorway effect

#32

Post by shermantanktop »

xpe wrote: post #15

How is the theory falsifiable? What if I pass between two rooms that look identical? Has this been studied? (It seems to me that the underlying claim of episodic memory might not be able to tell a difference.)

That's psychology and cognitive science. It can be meaningful, insightful, at times revelatory, all while suffering from a degree of non-reproducibility and confirmation bias.

Re: Doorway effect

#33

Post by vagab0nd »

Sorry to hijack this, but a related problem of mine is I can't picture myself going through a doorway. Like the brain just doesn't compute for some reason.

Re: Doorway effect

#34

Post by smeej »

egypturnash wrote: post #25

Living in a shotgun house has convinced me this effect is very real. When I have to walk from the front to the back, I have developed the habit of saying what I'm going to do as I walk through each of the five doors I have to pass through; this puts my intent into a different mental pipeline, that's much more resistant to being flushed out when I pass through a door. If my husband is at home then he tends to get in o…

Maybe a counter-anecdote? I live in a studio layout house. The only interior door/doorway is to the bathroom. Yet I regularly forget things between my kitchen counter and my desk, or sometimes even between my stove and the counter across from it, despite having generally strong short and long-term recall.

I had chalked it up to the familiarity of the places. I see the same things inside all the time, so one day's moments blend into the previous days' similar moments.

I find a related thing happens in places I visit a lot, like my church, where each time I go, the previous experiences layer on top of it. There just aren't quite enough of them there to crowd out what I'm trying to do this time.

Re: Doorway effect

#35

Post by jowea »

TrianguloY wrote: post #17

I've noticed that retracing your steps (either literally if walking or not) helps enormously. For me it happens that I'm doing something on my phone, remember to do something else, switch apps to do it, and literally forget what it is. But by going back or checking the recent apps I find again the "trigger" of the original reminder. For example, you are checking [social network] and you see a post that reminds you to…

Yeah it also happens to me on the computer. Specially funny when I end up distracted by something else, then a hour later come back to the original trigger and remember how I ended up on the last hour long rabbit hole and what I was actually going to do.

Re: Doorway effect

#36

Post by hnlmorg »

smeej wrote: post #34
egypturnash wrote: post #25

Living in a shotgun house has convinced me this effect is very real. When I have to walk from the front to the back, I have developed the habit of saying what I'm going to do as I walk through each of the five doors I have to pass through; this puts my intent into a different mental pipeline, that's much more resistant to being flushed out when I pass through a door. If my husband is at home then he tends to get in o…

Maybe a counter-anecdote? I live in a studio layout house. The only interior door/doorway is to the bathroom. Yet I regularly forget things between my kitchen counter and my desk, or sometimes even between my stove and the counter across from it, despite having generally strong short and long-term recall. I had chalked it up to the familiarity of the places. I see the same things inside all the time, so one day's mom…

That’s not a counter-anecdote. The linked article describes how this is about psychological barriers which can align with physical barriers but doesn’t have to be. Such as application windows on a computer desktop.

What you’re describing is still a physical barrier but it’s not a literal door way.

Re: Doorway effect

#37

Post by dhc02 »

vagab0nd wrote: post #33

Sorry to hijack this, but a related problem of mine is I can't picture myself going through a doorway. Like the brain just doesn't compute for some reason.

Can you picture other things?

A long time ago I read that if you are awakened and want to fall back asleep, you should picture yourself turning around, going through a door to your basement stairway and descending the steps towards the dark basement.

I tried forever to do this and couldn't, and thought it was something about this scenario specifically. But then years later, I learned about aphantasia and realized I can't actually picture anything at all. The doorway wasn't special.

Re: Doorway effect

#38

Post by hnlmorg »

TOTP 2FA is terrible for this. I’ll sign into a website, pick my phone up to read the TOTP code, and instead end up on HN or Signal or something. Put the phone down after a couple of minutes, look back up to my computer screen with the 2FA prompt and go “oh yeah, that’s why I looked at my phone”

That happens probably 50% of the time. And I wish that was an exaggeration.

Re: Doorway effect

#39

Post by seabass-labrax »

hnlmorg wrote: post #38

TOTP 2FA is terrible for this. I’ll sign into a website, pick my phone up to read the TOTP code, and instead end up on HN or Signal or something. Put the phone down after a couple of minutes, look back up to my computer screen with the 2FA prompt and go “oh yeah, that’s why I looked at my phone” That happens probably 50% of the time. And I wish that was an exaggeration.

By which point, of course, your TOTP token has expired. I feel your pain :)

Re: Doorway effect

#40

Post by hnlmorg »

seabass-labrax wrote: post #39
hnlmorg wrote: post #38

TOTP 2FA is terrible for this. I’ll sign into a website, pick my phone up to read the TOTP code, and instead end up on HN or Signal or something. Put the phone down after a couple of minutes, look back up to my computer screen with the 2FA prompt and go “oh yeah, that’s why I looked at my phone” That happens probably 50% of the time. And I wish that was an exaggeration.

By which point, of course, your TOTP token has expired. I feel your pain :)

Haha yeah, that’s the most annoying part of it.
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