Forms of Forgetting

"Forgetting is a necessary condition of human existence. It allows us to set aside the inconsequential, so we can recall what's important. Good memory depends on forgetting the irrelevant. Forgetting also helps restore our vitality after disappointing or painful events, encouraging us to recover from unpleasantness more quickly."

"We can forget that we remembered to do something. These are typically small matters, but they add up inconveniently. This forgetting occurs when the goal for doing the act is more prominent and easily retrieved than actually doing the act."

"With repeated actions that don't have a distinctive feature for each repetition, we often forget we remembered, as with locking a door or unplugging the iron or taking food out of the freezer. To remember each repeated action, it helps to say something unusual to ourselves when we carry out that action or simply tell ourselves clearly that we did it."

Forgetting serves critical functions in human life by allowing us to discard inconsequential information, prioritize important memories, and recover emotionally from painful experiences. Without forgetting, emotional pain would persist unbearably. However, forgetting also creates significant disadvantages, particularly regarding tasks we need to complete. One common form involves forgetting that we already performed an action, such as misplacing items we've already stored or disconnecting tasks we've already completed. This occurs when the goal of an action becomes more mentally prominent than the actual execution. Repeated actions without distinctive features—like locking doors or unplugging appliances—are especially vulnerable to this type of forgetting. Strategies to combat this include verbalizing unusual statements during task completion or explicitly confirming task completion to strengthen memory encoding.

Read at Psychology Today