Scientists say being forgetful is actually a sign of higher intelligence

 Scientists say being forgetful is actually a sign of higher intelligence

Contrary to what you may think, it seems that the people who forget are ... are ... what did I type? Ah yes, the forgetful may be smarter than those with impeccable memories.

Forgetting things is a sign of intelligence, according to a study published in the journal Neuron, because it shows that your brain is focused on more important things.

This is great, but I can't help but think that I would have a hard time entering Oxford or Cambridge if I wrote in my application letter that I am really good at forgetting my keys or leaving my wallet at home.

Regardless, the study was conducted by Paul Frankland and Blake Richards of the University of Toronto, who found that people who remember certain things tend to have difficulty making decisions. important.

Richards told CNN:

It's important for the brain to forget irrelevant details and focus on the things that will help make decisions in the real world.

We all admire the person who can crush Trivial Pursuit or win at Jeopardy, but the fact is, evolution has shaped our memory not to win a trivia game, but to make smart decisions.

On the other hand, do other people think it's funny this is what Richards mentioned about the "Trivial Pursuit flap"?

I hate to speculate aimlessly, but I can't help but think that this study is somehow his way of legitimizing the losses suffered each year by his friends and family while he was a professor at the university.

Let's get back to his research, which in no way seeks to deflect the fact that he still doesn't know what the average speed of an unloaded swallow is.

Richards and Frankland claim that smart people filter out unnecessary information, allowing them to focus on what really matters.

They also found that minds capable of "replacing old memories" with new ones were able to quickly make decisions and make decisions based on new information rather than old deceptive memories.

The pair added that in the modern age, the internet has given us instant access to all information. It is therefore unnecessary to remember certain things.

That's great, of course, but in the UK we always judge students by how much information they can arbitrarily remember. So don't think that the fact that you forgot to study is proof that you are destined for great things.