H E A L T H I N F O R M A T I O N D E S I G N
Even though the average person can make over 10,000 decisions every single day
our short-term memory can only hold approximately 7 of these at once
To save anything and recall it later the brain first needs enough time to transfer
that information from it's short-term memory - to its long-term memory
So when we are rush around - with too many things on our minds at once - and we
start to exceed that number, the first item you added to that list may now be
forgotten to make room for the newest one
The same thing can happen when you also try to read something important online and
experience a lot of distractions too. Which is why research shows that most
people prefer to print off important documents to read offline later.
The older we get, the more information our long-term memory will have already saved
so the brain may start to dispose of the oldest and least-used of these
- simply to free up space for newer ones
In both cases, they are natural coping mechanisms employed by the brain.