Why do we forget things?
Association (2012) 148 reports that stroke, traumatic brain injury and dementia can all cause aphasia. Although there are many examples of memory disorders amnesia and HSE illustrate the two types of long-term memory that may be affected (explicit and implicit) and as we have seen, abnormal loss of memory is caused by physiological change or atrophy regardless of cause. Aside from this abnormal loss of
memory, it would seem there are a few main reasons as to why we forget. Primarily it is because almost everything we do is unexceptional, unimportant and without emotional connotation so no attempt is made to store it beyond STM or sensory memory. Furthermore, but to a lesser extent it is because the tri-part memory system can fail us. Finally it is because, as observed by looking at cases such as AJ, it would be a disadvantage to remember everything we see or do.
148 American Speech-language-Hearing Association, 2012. Aphasia: Causes and Number [online] Available at: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/Apha siaCauses.htm [Accessed 14 June 2012]
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