La ciencia de lo cotidiano #14. La habitaci贸n que estaba delante de mis ojos. [Esp/Eng]
馃嚜馃嚫 En Espa帽ol
隆Hola, querida comunidad de Holos-Lotus!
Hay d铆as en los que estamos convencidos de que nuestra memoria est谩 fallando. Buscamos las llaves durante varios minutos, no encontramos el tel茅fono que tenemos delante o entramos en una habitaci贸n y, de repente, olvidamos por completo qu茅 铆bamos a buscar.
A veces incluso nos preocupamos pensando que algo no est谩 funcionando bien en nuestra cabeza.
Pero en muchas ocasiones el problema no est谩 en la memoria.
Est谩 en la atenci贸n.
Fuente Pixabay
La ciencia de lo cotidiano #14
La habitaci贸n que estaba delante de mis ojos
Hace alg煤n tiempo lleg贸 a consulta un paciente bastante preocupado.
No ten铆a dolores.
No hab铆a sufrido ning煤n golpe en la cabeza.
Tampoco hab铆a notado otros cambios importantes.
Pero estaba convencido de que estaba comenzando a perder la memoria.
鈥擠octora, 煤ltimamente se me pierden las cosas todo el tiempo.
Le pregunt茅 qu茅 cosas.
鈥擫as llaves, el tel茅fono, los documentos... cualquier cosa.
Sonri贸 un poco avergonzado.
鈥擸 lo peor es que despu茅s aparecen en el mismo lugar donde las estaba buscando.
Le ped铆 que me contara uno de esos episodios.
Me explic贸 que una ma帽ana hab铆a estado varios minutos buscando sus llaves antes de salir de casa.
Hab铆a revisado la mesa.
El sof谩.
Los bolsillos.
Incluso hab铆a regresado a la habitaci贸n para buscarlas otra vez.
Finalmente, su esposa las encontr贸.
Estaban sobre la mesa.
Exactamente en el lugar donde 茅l hab铆a estado mirando.
鈥斅縔 c贸mo es posible que no las viera? 鈥攎e pregunt贸.
Era una excelente pregunta.
Le expliqu茅 que nuestros ojos pueden estar mirando algo sin que nuestra mente necesariamente le preste atenci贸n.
Parece extra帽o, pero ocurre con mucha m谩s frecuencia de lo que imaginamos.
Podemos estar mirando directamente un objeto y, sin embargo, no registrarlo conscientemente porque nuestra atenci贸n est谩 ocupada con otra cosa.
Los especialistas llaman a este fen贸meno ceguera por desatenci贸n.
Y no significa que nuestros ojos hayan dejado de funcionar.
Significa que nuestra atenci贸n estaba en otro lugar.
Pensemos por un momento en todo lo que ocurre a nuestro alrededor.
Sonidos.
Colores.
Movimientos.
Personas.
Objetos.
Luces.
Conversaciones.
Pensamientos.
Nuestro cerebro recibe constantemente una enorme cantidad de informaci贸n.
Si tuviera que prestar la misma atenci贸n a absolutamente todo, probablemente nos resultar铆a imposible concentrarnos en cualquier cosa.
Por eso selecciona.
Prioriza.
Deja algunas cosas en segundo plano mientras concentra nuestros recursos mentales en aquello que considera m谩s importante en ese momento.
Eso explica situaciones que todos hemos vivido.
Estamos buscando las gafas mientras las llevamos puestas.
Buscamos el tel茅fono mientras lo tenemos en la mano.
Leemos una p谩gina y, al terminar, nos damos cuenta de que no recordamos absolutamente nada.
Entramos en la cocina y olvidamos por qu茅 fuimos.
No necesariamente estamos perdiendo la memoria.
Muchas veces simplemente est谩bamos pensando en otra cosa.
La atenci贸n funciona un poco como un foco.
Aquello que ilumina con mayor intensidad se vuelve m谩s evidente.
Lo dem谩s no desaparece.
Sigue all铆.
Pero puede quedar fuera de nuestra percepci贸n consciente.
Hay situaciones en las que esto puede resultar mucho m谩s importante.
Uno de los ejemplos m谩s conocidos ocurre al conducir.
Una persona puede estar mirando hacia la carretera y, al mismo tiempo, no percibir un elemento que aparece delante de ella porque toda su atenci贸n est谩 concentrada en otra tarea.
Por eso conducir mientras se manipula el tel茅fono es especialmente peligroso.
No se trata solamente de apartar los ojos de la carretera.
Tambi茅n podemos tener los ojos mirando hacia delante y, sin embargo, no estar procesando adecuadamente lo que tenemos delante.
Volviendo a mi paciente, le hice una 煤ltima pregunta:
鈥擟uando buscaba las llaves, 驴en qu茅 estaba pensando?
Se qued贸 callado unos segundos.
Despu茅s comenz贸 a re铆rse.
Estaba preocupado por una reuni贸n que ten铆a esa ma帽ana.
Mientras buscaba las llaves, estaba repasando mentalmente lo que ten铆a que decir.
Las llaves estaban all铆.
Sus ojos las hab铆an visto.
Pero su atenci贸n estaba en otro lugar.
Eso cambi贸 completamente su manera de interpretar lo ocurrido.
No significaba necesariamente que su memoria estuviera deterior谩ndose.
Significaba que su cerebro hab铆a decidido, por decirlo de alguna manera, que en aquel momento hab铆a algo m谩s importante que aquellas llaves.
Y, aunque la decisi贸n no siempre sea la correcta, forma parte de la manera en que nuestra atenci贸n consigue funcionar.
Desde entonces, cuando no encuentro algo que tengo delante, intento recordar aquella consulta.
Antes de pensar que mi memoria me est谩 jugando una mala pasada, me pregunto:
驴Realmente lo estaba buscando?
驴O simplemente estaba mirando mientras mi mente se encontraba en otro lugar?
A veces la diferencia es enorme.
Quiz谩s por eso deber铆amos ser un poco m谩s pacientes con esos peque帽os olvidos cotidianos.
No todo lo que no vemos es algo que nuestra memoria haya perdido.
A veces simplemente estaba all铆 todo el tiempo.
Frente a nuestros ojos.
Mientras nosotros est谩bamos, mentalmente, en otra habitaci贸n.
Las im谩genes son de Pixabay y la traducci贸n al ingl茅s fue realizada usando DeepL Translate.
馃嚞馃嚙 English Version
Hello, dear Holos-Lotus community!
There are days when we become convinced that our memory is failing. We search for our keys for several minutes, cannot find the phone that is right in front of us, or walk into a room and suddenly completely forget what we went there to look for.
Sometimes we even become worried that something is not working properly in our minds.
But in many cases, the problem is not memory.
It is attention.
Source Pixabay
The Science of Everyday Life #14
The Room That Was Right in Front of My Eyes
Some time ago, a patient came to see me quite concerned.
He had no pain.
He had not suffered any head injury.
He had not noticed any other significant changes either.
But he was convinced that he was beginning to lose his memory.
"Doctor, lately I keep losing things."
I asked him what kind of things.
"My keys, my phone, documents... anything."
He smiled somewhat embarrassed.
"And the worst part is that they always turn up in the same place where I was looking."
I asked him to tell me about one of those episodes.
He explained that one morning he had spent several minutes looking for his keys before leaving home.
He checked the table.
The sofa.
His pockets.
He even went back into the bedroom to look again.
Eventually, his wife found them.
They were on the table.
Exactly where he had been looking.
"How is it possible that I didn't see them?" he asked me.
It was an excellent question.
I explained that our eyes can be looking at something without our minds necessarily paying attention to it.
It sounds strange, but it happens much more often than we realize.
We can be looking directly at an object and still fail to consciously notice it because our attention is occupied with something else.
Specialists call this phenomenon inattentional blindness.
It does not mean that our eyes have stopped working.
It means that our attention was somewhere else.
Think for a moment about everything happening around us.
Sounds.
Colors.
Movements.
People.
Objects.
Lights.
Conversations.
Thoughts.
Our brains constantly receive an enormous amount of information.
If we had to give the same amount of attention to absolutely everything, it would probably be impossible to concentrate on anything at all.
So the brain selects.
It prioritizes.
It puts some things in the background while focusing our mental resources on whatever it considers most important at that moment.
That explains situations we have all experienced.
We look for our glasses while they are already on our face.
We search for our phone while holding it in our hand.
We read a page and, when we reach the end, realize we cannot remember a single thing.
We walk into the kitchen and forget why we went there.
It does not necessarily mean that we are losing our memory.
Very often, we were simply thinking about something else.
Attention works a little like a spotlight.
Whatever it illuminates most strongly becomes more noticeable.
Everything else does not disappear.
It is still there.
But it may remain outside our conscious perception.
There are situations in which this can become much more important.
One of the best-known examples occurs while driving.
A person may be looking toward the road and, at the same time, fail to notice something directly in front of them because their attention is focused on another task.
That is why using a phone while driving is particularly dangerous.
It is not only a matter of taking your eyes off the road.
Even when our eyes are looking forward, we may not be properly processing what is in front of us.
Going back to my patient, I asked him one final question:
"When you were looking for the keys, what were you thinking about?"
He remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he started laughing.
He had been worried about a meeting he had that morning.
While looking for the keys, he was mentally rehearsing what he needed to say.
The keys were there.
His eyes had seen them.
But his attention was somewhere else.
That completely changed the way he interpreted what had happened.
It did not necessarily mean that his memory was deteriorating.
It meant that his brain had, so to speak, decided that something else was more important than those keys at that particular moment.
And although that decision is not always the right one, it is part of the way our attention works.
Ever since that consultation, whenever I cannot find something that is right in front of me, I try to remember that conversation.
Before assuming that my memory is playing tricks on me, I ask myself:
Was I really looking for it?
Or was I simply looking while my mind was somewhere else?
Sometimes the difference is enormous.
Perhaps that is why we should be a little more patient with those small everyday lapses.
Not everything we fail to notice is something our memory has lost.
Sometimes it was there all along.
Right in front of our eyes.
While we were, mentally, in another room.
The images are from Pixabay and the English translation was done using DeepL Translate.
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