ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we discussed the amnesias, which for the most part involve forgetting from long-term memory. In our everyday lives, forgetting over short time intervals is also troubling. Absentmindedness, a common label for everyday lapses, occurs when people forget what they were doing, were about to do, had intended to do, and so on. You go upstairs to get something but become distracted by something else. You wonder what you were looking for, wander around looking for something that needs getting, and likely return empty-handed. The fretting about age-related memory decline so often discussed in the popular press is often in reference to something forgotten from just a few minutes earlier.
