When it comes to having perfectmemory, sometimes we can’t help but wonder whether there’s somefault in our blueprints! Why do we humans simply don’t remembereverything we want to remember? Indeed, we’re all forgetful. If weweren’t, diaries would never be kept, secretaries would never behired, and the “smart phones” would not have been invented!

Most of us have vivid memories ofour lives from about age three to our present ages. These are storedin what we call our “long-term memory.” According to SigmundFreud, we forgot most of our early childhood. Psychologists disagreeon what causes this amnesia, and the investigation hasbeen going on since Freud’s time. A very good theory, born from theresults of experiments with toddlers, is that lack of languageability at the time of an event stopped us from describing it toothers. The memory exists in our minds, but words were not associatedwith it when it happened. Therefore, it doesn’t become a subject inour adult autobiographies.

The other type of memory, the“short-term memory,” is what we usually refer to when we say, “Iforgot.” Experts say that you can keep about seven things in yourmemory at once for up to three days. During that time, you may forgetsomething so that you can put something else in its place. Here’s asimple example to illustrate your short-term memory. Look at a listof twenty words for a minute or two. You’ll discover that you can’tremember more than about seven of the words and that they are theones in the beginning and at the end of the list because your mindjudged them to be more important than those in the middle.