Have you ever had the experience where you knew that you knew a piece of information but you couldn’t get at it because some other memory was in the way? Maybe you were trying to remember someone’s name, and the wrong answer kept popping into your head. This is called blocking and occurs when incorrect information obscures what you are trying to remember. This type of memory problem becomes more common with age.
This usually happens with memories that share the same semantic space in the brain. For example, a grandmother needs to remember the names of all of her grandchildren. Her brain stores all these names in a similar way and uses similar associations to recall them. This is why she may call her grandchildren by the wrong name by accident. The memories of the names are so close together that the wrong answer sometimes gets in the way.
Luckily, a blocked memory can usually be retrieved within a few minutes. It usually pops into your head as soon as you stop trying to remember.
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