Forgetfulness: Absentmindedness and Confusion

CONFUSION AND ABSENTMINDEDNESS -contained -yet were 'remembered' books and a
FORGETFULNESStelephone which it did not -a barn not seen but
(Based on author's sitesuggested in questioning within 20 minutes by half, a
Confusion and absentmindedness affect not only theweek later by 80% , were 'remembered' as having
elderly; nor do they occur only in cases of Amnesiabeen seen (in the UK in 2003 the British Psychological
or Dementia -Alzheimer's disease ~everyone in dailyAssociation struck off a government criminal
life suffers to one extent or another, sometimespsychological profiler for manipulating a murder
with significant consequences, from, both, confusion'confession'). Confusion is caused normally by this
and absentmindedness.natural function of man's memory.
What is 'memory' there have been many scientific,2. Absentmindedness is caused by perfectly natural
academic, theories about ~even in cases of simplest'slips of action' ~experiment have shown 35 people in
and least complex brains and nerve systems scienceone single week to have made 400 of them
has little knowledge and only sketchy understanding(excluding many of insignificance and not recorded) -it
of it -theories have varied from 'neural' assuming thatis failure to wholly or in part retrieve from, or to
changes in the anatomy of the brain take place whenkeep long enough in, memory actions or the
something is seen or heard or experienced andsequence or the goal of actions carried out and/or to
learned, to 'electrical' supposing changes in thebe carried out in the existing situation and/or in one
electrical fields in the brain, to 'biochemical' believingor more other situations triggerable by it: the
that that causes in the molecular structure of thememory mechanism, especially in ordinary routine
brain's cells a re-alignment.actions almost inattentively, automatically, performed
How we remember is now accepted by science -the(and more so if their importance have lessened
thinkers of millennia ago were right: the human brain-indeed by the passing of time itself) tends to switch
contains a number of schemata each schema storingfrom specific to schematic, general, retrieval; it is
different types of related information (basically, firsthow man's memory is naturally constructed and
in limited-capacity sensory registers -often as stringsnormally functions.
of information, processing some and passing themDiet and Exercise help, some suggest, reduce
into short-memory in order to process more, any ofconfusion and absentmindedness -and indeed may be
significance transferring to long-memory and placing ina reason why some are more prone to confusion
the appropriate schema with others of same orand absentmindedness than others ~their
similar kind). The relevant parts of the storedrecommendations being the inclusion in one's diet of
information, when triggered by an event or intention,roughage (both, the weed called so from
are, as memory-trace, result of the change, recalled.health-shops or supermarkets, as well as foods
Why confusion and absentmindedness there are twocontaining fibre such as bran -these as compounds of
reasons generally agreed upon by psychiatrists andhigh molecular weight having in the body electrical
psychologists...potential when interfacing with water), and in a sitting
1. Confusion arises ordinarily because memory, unlessposition after deeply inhaling and with one's back
the focus of the whole thing would be blatantlystraight bending the body forward for a few seconds
incorrect, automatically adds to, or subtracts from,while holding the breath -no more than thrice a day
what has actually been seen or heard andand for a maximum of three minutes each time
remembers only as would fit in with the related(these [bio]electrically re-charging also the spleen
pre-formed schema -as expected or implied,associated with sense organs -visual memory tending
unconsciously integrated and interpreteddirectly from the sense organs to be transferred to
~experiments about possible consequences (e.g. theone's memory).
discovery in 2003 that in the USA in the state ofConfusion and absentmindedness only in 10% of
Illinois alone over 50% of convicts executed hadthose over 70/80 have the potential to develop into
been innocent) showed that in an office shown weremore than ordinary everyday forms of them.
not remembered a skull, a bark, a rolling pin, it