4 Answers

  1. Because the brain is very rational! Its main function is to ensure our full “combat readiness” and not to overspend energy. Selectivity, archiving of unused data is just for that.

    Well imagine that: you would remember all, in general, all the advertising that you have heard since childhood. All quarrels in kindergarten, etc. Meaning?

    Bekhtereva at one time found the centers responsible for memorizing “everything in a row”, and completely refused to activate these zones. A person becomes doomed.

    The brain searches for the main, important, structured information – and remembers only the “Favorites” folder :).

  2. I will honestly say that I have never studied memory very much, but I have devoted a lot to studying the features of decision-making, which is strongly related to this topic, since decisions are almost always made on the basis of previous experience. The answer to the question, in fact, lies in the question itself. The head is not so full of space, as the brain has limited resources. In addition, the brain is constantly working in the mode of optimizing energy consumption, or simply it is very lazy. Read more about its features in Daniel Kahneman's “Thinking, fast and slow”.
    Memory is a set of specific neural circuits that are constantly updated, as some neurons die and others are formed. They can either be added to the old ones if the new experience is related to the previous one, or they can create new ones. The more often, for example, we repeat the same action, the more stable the chain becomes, imprinting itself on the subconscious. No one, for example, remembers what to do to walk, because the brain is very well trained to do it. When children take their first steps, they try to understand what the process is (compare this with any physical exercise). The more difficult question is how exactly our brain chooses which information or experience is most valuable to it. Obviously, the more complex the information, the harder it will be for the brain to process and store it. And he, as mentioned above, is limited in resources, and does not particularly like to strain himself. Hypotheses have suggested that the brain is activated under stress, which makes us remember such situations, but at the same time, under stress, we make more mistakes, so often our memories are far from what it really was. A similar theory is about strong emotions that are tied to experience/information, more substances are released that contribute to the formation of neural chains, and negative substances contribute to this process better than positive ones, which is caused by the need to survive in harsh conditions: at any moment a person could be eaten. Do not forget that our brain has been formed for hundreds of thousands of years in conditions of constant danger, but we can safely go to the grocery store for the last few decades. As determinants of memory, I would highlight the following points: frequency of repetition, emotional coloring, complexity, and the subjective importance of information/experience. The process is certainly more complex, not to mention that each of these parameters is subjective (except for the frequency of repetitions), but you can talk about them with some confidence.
    In conclusion, our brains can be trained. Therefore, load it regularly with various tasks that you will be interested in (emotional coloring). Then you will be able to remember if not everything, then at least what you need.

  3. Because the brain is always looking for the shortest and least energy-consuming way to solve a problem. It has evolved with us and “learned” to work in such a way that it is as effective as possible in these conditions. According to this rule, it often “deceives” us: it obscures areas that, according to the practice developed over the course of evolution, do not play a role in the survival process and, on the contrary, focuses our attention on what it considers important.

  4. The memory mechanism is poorly understood, not enough to answer your question.
    There is a suspicion that you and I really remember everything, but these memories are stored here… in different ways.
    Absolutely everything is stored for a few seconds; almost everything is stored for a couple of minutes; something that has some specific characteristics is stored for a couple of hours ( whether it is new, whether it is necessary, whether it is associated with something, or figs knows what is wrong with it); well, there is also long-term memory, and how consciousness puts information there is also not quite clear.
    It is clear that conscious effort plays a role, but it is not entirely clear what this role is. Experienced emotions also play a role (i.e., memorization can be supported by an emotional “anchor”), but it happens that a person does not want to, and there is no” anchor”, but remembers something insignificant for a long time.
    And sometimes it doesn't remember.
    In general, this issue still needs to be dealt with.

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