The evolutionary benefits of being forgetful

By Sven Vanneste, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin
Elva Arulchelvan, Lecturer in Psychology and PhD Researcher in Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin

Forgetting is part of our daily lives. You may walk into a room only to forget why you went in there – or perhaps someone says hi on the street and you can’t remember their name.

But why do we forget things? Is it simply a sign of memory impairment, or are there benefits?

One of the earliest findings in this area highlighted that forgetting can occur simply because the average person’s memories fade away. This comes from 19th century German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, whose “forgetting curve” showed how most…

Read complete article

~	Friends like these: What a second Trump term may mean for the CDC, and how it affects Canada

~	Quincy Jones mastered the art of arrangement, transforming simple tunes into epic soundscapes

~	Canada and churches have moral obligations for the reparations of missing and disappeared Indigenous children: Final Report

~	‘I can make a band play like a singer sings’: Quincy Jones shaped our listening for seven decades

~	Inquiry Needed into Japan’s Flawed Criminal Justice System

~	Memes, photojournalism and television debates: 3 images that defined the 2024 US election

~	Bird flu has been detected in a pig in the US. Why does that matter?

~	Yes, burning gas is bad for the climate. But keeping it in Australia’s energy mix is sensible

~	What happens if you have a HELP debt and kids? The missed opportunity in Labor’s plan to fix student loans

~	What poll watchers can − and can’t − do on Election Day