Here’s Why You Lose Your Train of Thought When Entering a New Room

Are you also someone who walks into a room only to forget why you went there? You’re not alone. The doorway effect is a common experience that can frustrate us.

Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Christian Jarrett explains how our memories are susceptible to the “doorway effect.” Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana have been studying the phenomenon since 2006.

The team discovered that walking in a doorway creates a new “event boundary” or episode in our memories. This makes it more challenging to remember our purpose for going there. It was stored in the past memory episode.

In one of the studies, the researchers used a virtual reality scene to demonstrate that the volunteers’ memory of items in a room was reduced once they entered a new doorway. The results even show something almost mysterious about the doorway effects on our brains.

It's called "The Doorway Effect." https://t.co/b6tZVkX0WZ

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Why do we lose our train of thought when entering a new room?

Passing through a new doorway can cause our brains to reset. Thus, it leads us to refocus on a new stimuli which disrupt our original train of thought.

When our memories are divided into episodes, the doorway effect occurs. It makes it trickier to remember details from earlier events.

A team of researchers at the University of Queensland has recently given a clearer picture. Their findings showed that walking through doorways that join the same rooms doesn’t affect memory.

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Only when there is a major change in a context, such as leaving your room for the garden, does the doorway effect mainly occur. In addition, when you have distractions or have your mind’s focus on other things, it also increases the possibility of forgetting your purpose when going into a new room.

The new results suggest that staying focused on your purpose when entering a doorway through an errand can help prevent the doorway effect. You can also make a note on your hand to avoid going back again.