Forget me not
Why can my 9 year old daughter remember her password for her game file, but can’t remember where she put her glasses five minutes ago? My son can remember his times tables but not where we keep the pencils.
Stacy
Information in working memory is usually only kept for a few seconds. This information can be lost easily if we don’t rehears the information. Your daughter may have had difficulty remembering her password for her game initially. But constant practice means that she has moved this information from her working memory to her long-term memory, where she is not likely to forget it. Similarly, your son has probably been practicing his times tables at school, which reinforces the information and moves it to his long-term memory.
Although you may have asked your daughter many times to do something or told your son where the pencils are, if they haven’t rehearsed this information to try and keep it ‘active’ in their mind, then they will forget it. One thing you can do is to ask them to say out aloud what you told them. The act of both repeating the information and hearing the information will mean it will be remembered for longer.
