Relieved, embarrassed and sweating, I wanted to blame the whole experience on my memory, but the neuroscientist in me knew better. And noticing requires two things: perception (seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling) and attention. If we want to remember something, above all else we need to notice. I was just about to report my car stolen when I stumbled upon it in 4B. I knew I was in the right garage, but that’s all. I was sure I had parked on the fourth floor, but maybe it was the third or the fifth? And did I park in section A, B or C? No idea.
I paced up and down ramps, becoming increasingly frustrated and hopeless. When I returned to the garage, I walked to where I thought I had parked, but my car wasn’t there. I arrived on time, gave my 45-minute talk, answered questions and signed books. But worried I was late, I raced out of there without getting a photo and, worse, without consciously registering where I had parked. Normally I take a photo of the floor number or the row letter whenever I park in a garage. I was scheduled to give a talk a couple of blocks away and had hoped to arrive earlier. Not long ago, when I was somewhere in my mid-40s, I drove to Cambridge, Massachusetts, from Cape Cod and parked my car in a garage.
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