Do you often forget things? It means you’re smart!

If you always forget thing, do not worry: it means you are very intelligent!

We have always thought that remembering even the tiniest details of things happened a long time ago was something only the most intelligent people could do.

However, some new researches proved it wrong: they studied the relation between memory and intelligence, and found out something very interesting about our brain.

Intelligence and memory

Stress, work committments and other thoughts can often make us forget things. However, even if you don’t always remember all the details of something happened long ago, it does not mean it is a problem.

Many different studies showed that forgetting about non-important details is a symptom of intelligence. Actually, it means your brain is working in the most efficient way possible, choosing the best information to keep and eliminating the useless ones.

Memory problems

Recently, two psychobiologists from the University of Toronto, Blake Richards and Paul Frankland, published an article on the magazine Neuron. They analyzed the brain mechanism of removing information and acquire new knowledge.

They started from the fact that our memory goal is not remembering all the details. Instead, its main task is to guide and optimize a smart decision-making process.

What does this mean? Our brain allows us to constantly evolve, forgetting what happened in the past. In particular, our removal mechanism has two main tasks. On one hand, it helps us eliminating obsolete information and adapting to new situation. On the other hand, it reduces the variables we have to choose.

Memory and decision-making process

Therefore, forgetting things is fundamental to maximize our ability to adapt to new things. When the brain eliminates all the useless and misleading details, our decision-making process becomes simpler and more optimized.

Recently, experts proved the existence of specific mechanisms which help us removing memories. They were once considered dysfunctions. That’s not all: according to a research developed by the University of Glasgow, forgetful people are more flexible and a higher learning ability. A flexible brain can forget certain details to make room for new and more important information.

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