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Doorway effect

en.wikipedia.org

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Re: Doorway effect

#51

Post by thelastparadise »

dhc02 wrote: post #37
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 c…

> you should picture yourself turning around, going through a door to your basement stairway and descending the steps towards the dark basement.

Nope. Not doing that!

Sounds like nightmare city!

Re: Doorway effect

#53

Post by martinpw »

Funnily enough this cartoon showed up in the middle of an article I was just reading that was also linked from HN:

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a27014

so a weird mix of being reminded about something that was about forgetting something. And it was one of those rare New Yorker cartoons that was actually funny.

Re: Doorway effect

#54

Post by TaylorAlexander »

A perhaps related effect is that when I leave the house I always forget one or two things, and I remember them usually once I start the car engine. So then I turn off the car and go back to my apartment and grab the remaining items. But I recently learned that I can imagine leaving the house, and it helps me remember the final things I forgot!

Re: Doorway effect

#56

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

jowea wrote: post #35
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.

“There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza...”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zYY6Q4nRTS4

Probably a timeless phenomenon. But I wouldn’t be as good as Henry. I’d take the bucket to the well and eventually shout back up the way, “there’s a hole...!”

(What do you think he needed the water for anyway?)

Re: Doorway effect

#58

Post by mtizim »

thelastparadise wrote: post #52
willio58 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was about to say this. Walking into a different room can vastly change your entire experience for the better (or worse)

> (or worse) Whatever you do, don't look in the mirror.

do look in the mirror, don't panic, face your fears, and look away full of love.

Re: Doorway effect

#59

Post by topspin »

I think it's a threat response. When you enter a different area your mind spikes for a moment as you (un)consciously scan around, and whatever thought you were tenuously holding is in jeopardy of getting pushed out. Watch a cat or dog, particularly those that spend a lot of time outdoors and don't take the world for granted; when a door is opened for them they'll step in, stop dead, look around, sniff the air, listen, and then get on with their business. Evolutionary wiring.

Re: Doorway effect

#60

Post by Springtime »

As another commenter mentions it's seemingly the same phenomenon as why 'memory palaces' work for memorizing arbitrary things (among other similarly effective mnemonics) and this article suggests something similar is also occurring unconsciously for random thoughts and gets disrupted by such actions.

Such spacial-based memory triggers I've also seen demonstrated by magician/skeptic Derren Brown, where recall of the participant is manipulated via location-based touch or gestures (both for remembering and forgetting things).

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