DOOR!

OK, I have found the answer.

The other day, I went downstairs for something. When I got downstairs, I forgot what I had come down for. (And that’s not the first time.)

But I have found the answer and it is not age.

(Though I won’t deny that I am become a tad ancient and those brain cells—unionized, I bet!—are becoming a bit rebellious, refusing to obey management. And not only that: my hairline is in recession, my weight is in inflation, and overall I’m in depression. I’m a walking economy!)

But back to this thing about memory. Names, numbers, places, things. All are fading rapidly. But now I know why, courtesy of Dr. Radvansky, psychology professor at Notre Dame.

This guy is an expert on doors. Yes, doors. His research has found the answer. Here it is:  

Passing through doorways is the cause of these memory lapses!

“Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains helpfully. “Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.” Boxed, packed, and carted away.

Doorways! Who’d’ve thunk it?

Prof. Radvansky performed experiments on college students (rewarded with course credits) in both real and virtual environments. They had to go into a room (real or virtual) pick up an object (red cube or blue wedge or some such) and go into another room and exchange it for another object. Randomly they were quizzed about what they were carrying or what they had just dropped off (they couldn’t see what they were carrying in a virtual experiment; in a real one, they were not allowed to look). The result? More errors if they were interrogated after passing through a doorway, than if they were in the middle of a room: the “location-updating effect” (a.k.a. “senior moment”). Memory was worse with a location shift. The funny thing was that even when they returned to the same room (after going through a series of rooms) memory did not improve. It seems that just going through doors does something to your brain, impeding your ability to retrieve thoughts or decisions made in a different room.

So? Live in a place with no doors and your memory will be pristine!

(I wonder if car doors can do that to you, too. I’m gonna get me a motorcycle!)

Anyhow, I was intrigued to learn that doorways turn out to be “event boundaries.” Remarkable!

Maybe that’s why Jesus called himself a “door.”

“I am the door;

if anyone enters through Me,

he will be saved.”

John 10:9

For it is through him that one has access to the Father.

For through Him we … have our access

in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 2:18

It is the passage through this “event boundary” that changes our eternal destiny. It changes everything!

Therefore, having been justified by faith,

we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also we have obtained

access by faith into this grace

in which we stand.

Romans 5:1–2

An “event boundary” indeed! The past is forgiven. From sin I am free.

And you know what, that Door does things to God’s memory, too.

“… and their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more.”

Hebrews 10:17

Amazing, that “Event-Boundary”!

Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I shall enter through them,

I shall give thanks to the LORD.

This is the gate of the LORD;

The righteous will enter through it.

Psalm 118:19–20

Enter. And forget.