Question: Are some people more prone to forgetting things than others? and why?

Rebecca Dewey answered on 22 Jun 2015:

They shouldn’t be really, if they are healthy, but we often think about memory in different ways, and something that is important to you or I might not be important to someone else. It’s normal for anyone to forget things from time to time, and it’s normal to become a little forgetful as you get older. Forgetting things isn’t usually a sign of anything unhealthy like dementia or Alzheimer’s unless it happens really really often.

The main reasons we forget things are (1) a memory that you don’t use or re-confirm (remind yourself of) will disappear over time. This is good as you’re making way for new things to be remembered. (2) You weren’t paying enough attention in the first place / you were thinking of something else. This might just be a sign that you weren’t that bothered about remembering anyway! (3) The memory you’re trying to remember is just on the tip of your tongue, but it is being blocked out by other, similar memories. This is usually temporary. (4) you remembered part of the memory, but some of the parts of the memory are inaccurate or you are remembering something someone has told you since, and that has changed your memory of the original event – our memories are very vulnerable to “suggestion”. (5) You would prefer that something else was true, and not exactly what did happen. This is called bias, and sometimes your made-up memory can seem very realistic if you’ve been thinking about it a lot.

All of these things happen from time to time and are normal – but if they happen a lot, it could be a sign that something is wrong.