World News for Students of English

25-09-2026 15:00

The doorway effect happens when you walk into a new room and suddenly forget what you were going to do.

Scientists explain that our brains divide our daily life into different events. When you go through a door, your brain thinks a new event is starting. It clears your short-term memory to make space for new information, which can make you forget your previous thought. Studies show that passing through doorways makes people forget things more easily, especially when they are multitasking or moving through many rooms. Similar things happen when you change tabs on a computer or get distracted.

To remember what you forgot, you can walk back to the previous room or repeat your goal out loud while moving.

Difficult words: divide (to separate something into smaller parts), short-term memory (the part of your brain which holds a small amount of information for a few minutes), multitask (to do or try to manage more than one activity at the same time).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.