Abigail Doolen News Today

Researchers set out to understand how and why forgetfulness can occur -- whether it be forgetting your cellphone or, even worse, forgetting your child in the backseat of the car. Researchers set up an experiment to better understand this lapse in what researchers call prospective memory, or the ability to remember critical but routine behaviors.

Since 1998, approximately 496 children have died of pediatric vehicular heatstroke in the United States because their caregiver forgot they were in the car, according to recent data from NoHeatStroke.org.

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame set out to understand how and why forgetfulness can occur — whether it be forgetting your cellphone or, even worse, forgetting your child in the backseat of the car. Nathan Rose, the William P. and Hazel B. White Assistant Professor of Brain, Behavior and Cognition in the Department of Psychology, set up an experiment to better understand this lapse in what researchers call prospective memory, or the ability to remember critical but routine behaviors...

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame set out to understand how and why forgetfulness can occur — whether it be forgetting your cellphone or...