Wow! That sounds very similar to Somebody's theory (I'll have to find shanks and ask him again) that it is good for the elderly to stay in familiar surroundings because seeing certain things will remind them of tasks they need to get done, such as eating.

I, though, have a different experience from what the Notre Dame people describe: if I physically go or turn back to the area where my previous thought of doing something told me was associated with it, I remember what I'd forgotten. It's not always in a different room, though; but sometimes it is.