Absent-minded people have ‘superior intelligence’

Study says people trying to remember everything may have a hard time making important decisions

It is good to be forgetful now as a study published by Neuron said that forgetful people may have superior intelligence. Now having an absent mind in not a problem instead a sign of intelligence as your brain is focused on the important things only.

The study was conducted by Paul Frankland and Blake Richards of the University of Toronto. The researchers studied data on memory loss and brain activity in both humans and animals.

CNN quoted Richards as saying: “It's important that the brain forgets irrelevant details and instead focuses on the stuff that's going to help make decisions in the real world.”

He said, “We all admire the person who can smash Trivial Pursuit or win at Jeopardy, but the fact is that evolution shaped our memory not to win a trivia game, but to make intelligent decisions.”



Storing too much in your mind is more like having a battle of information inside to be remembered by your brain.  It can also become a reason to lose focus.

It is not worth storing everything in your mind after having technology that is just a click away. Information can be easily stored in this fast era of technology.

Richards adds: “Instead of storing this irrelevant information that our phones can store for us, our brains are freed up to store the memories that actually do matter for us.”

The study indicates that minds able to forget old memories with the ability to adapt new situations, take decisions quickly and in a better ways without getting caught up with older and possibly confusing information.

People trying to remember everything may have a hard time making important decisions.

The article originally appeared in Independent.