The ‘doorway effect’ or ‘location updating effect’ is a psychological phenomenon where we experience short-term memory loss when passing through a doorway or transitioning between locations. This effect occurs both in physical boundaries, like moving from one room to another, and conceptual boundaries, like switching between desktop windows on a computer. Our memory is organized in episodes, such as attending a lecture or having a family meal, and the surrounding context plays a significant role in memory separation. Studies show that moving to a different location acts as a boundary marker that categorizes our memories into distinct segments. Research in virtual environments has found that the association or dissociation of objects with a person can impact memory recall. Furthermore, passing through a doorway can make highly available information less accessible. A study conducted at Bond University in 2021 attempted to replicate the doorway effect in physical and virtual rooms. The results showed that doorways caused an increase in false positives (false memories) in virtual rooms when participants were engaged in a distractor task, but had no effect in other experiments. The researchers suggested that forgetfulness after entering a new room is more likely to happen when individuals have multiple things on their mind. The doorway effect may be attributed to self-preservation behaviors, as humans become more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doorway_effect