Dr. Curtis Cripe on the Doorway Effect Mystery
Today, Dr. Curtis Cripe takes a break from discussing neuroengineering and delves into a mysterious and fascinating phenomenon — the Doorway Effect.
Passing through doorways has a profound effect on memory. Take, for instance, when you go to the kitchen to get something from the cupboard. As you pass through the doorway, you suddenly forget what you intended to do initially. Psychologists call this the Doorway Effect.
Studies have determined that doorways represent the boundary between one context to another. By context, the studies suggest rooms where a person moves, passing through a doorway. The so-called boundary, in this context, helps segment thoughts and experiences into separate events as though, in your mind, these are being partitioned for later use.
In some ways, Dr. Curtis Cripe explains that these boundaries help define what could be relevant in one situation from what could be relevant to another.
That said, when you move from one room to another, there is a likelihood that the relevant information from a previous room may be lost. It may either be replaced or flushed out by the relevant idea in the next one.
In the end, the doorway effect refers to how people remember things. It points to the fact that there’s more to remember than what people are paying attention to when it happens. But then, there’s also the effort to keep the memories.
Dr. Curtis Cripe adds that the brain seems to optimize some forms of memory to keep the information ready to hand when it expires and then shred that information when a new one is ready.
Dr. Curtis Cripe has a diverse multidisciplinary background, including neuroengineering technology, aerospace engineering, software development, and addiction recovery. He is the head of research and development at the NTL Group. More on Dr. Cripe and his work here.
Dr. Curtis Cripe 