When stuff won't "stick" and everything seems new.

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I've theorized about this extensively, and I'd love to hear your opinion on the topic.
In a very simple sense, it's related to the idea of information going "in one ear and out the other", but I don't think it has anything to do with attention or stored memory. I think it's a processing disorder related to AS.

It seems like one quality of my social misunderstanding manifests as learned concepts that do not "stick"... So, for instance, I might learn some convention of conversation to prevent social mistakes, and I think that I get it, but then later I make the same mistake again, like I hadn't learned a thing.

There is also an aspect that relates to pure perceptual information. My conceptual frameworks for perceived information don't "stick" very well either. So I might walk into a store that I've been in a hundred times before, and yet the layout, structure and general "feel" of the building all seems new. And it's not. Everything is exactly the same. It's like the information from my senses doesn't "stick". I'm constantly having to re-form concepts and associations in my mind.

So I wander around, often quite amazed by familiar and ordinary things. I've had others comment on this characteristic of mine. Things in life don't seem to adhere to the fabric of my personality.

The only exception seems to be if the information relates to my special interests. That stuff sticks without effort, and indeed, seems to expand and overrun other areas of my life that it really has nothing to do with. My brain seems wired to accept and process that information, to the exclusion of other things.

So what do you think this is all about?
Has this ever happened to you? Where everything seems new, and information refuses to "stick"?

I'm like this, too. I remember seeing some water coming out of a fountain or something, and it felt like I was seeing it for the first time. I went, "WHOA! Isn't water weird?!" and everyone thought I was high on something. I think it can be considered a gift to see things like they're new, but it also takes a LOT of repetition before things get into my long-term memory.

That's very much like what I'm talking about, perceptually. Most everything keeps a novelty about it. Sure, it can be interesting to always feel like the world around me is new all the time...

I suppose in a sense it's like there is some kind of filter missing from my brain. I mean, the world IS actually new all the time, in that everything is made of cells and atoms, and they are in constant flux. It's our brains that lay a sheet of uniformity and familiarity over everything; our brains that construct the mental "world" that each of us understands as reality. For me, it's like that sheet is not entirely there... or there's holes in it. Reality comes through freshly interpreted every time, instead of my brain falling back on some memory or psychological construct.

This is ok for me when I'm by myself.
But it causes real problems around people, as you could imagine.
Everything we know as socialization and relationships is based on that cohesive integration of perception and memory that creates the whole image of other people that we know. For me, it's like there are pieces missing, because I am having to re-interpret a lot of input that should have already been stored. It just won't "stick"!

I'd love to hear from some more people on this topic.
I apologize if I've rambled on too much

I can definitely relate. I mentioned in another post my visual equivalent of "in one ear and out the other".

An example from this past weekend: My sister and I were returning home and my next door neighbor's house caught my attention. I noticed the trim was red and green striped (made me think of Christmas which is my favorite time of year) and I asked my sister if they had recently painted the trim. She started laughing (she is used to my "impressive" observational skills ) and said they painted the entire house a completely different color months ago. The trim caught my attention, not the rest of the house.

I have no memory retention for people (I have been asked to point out someone in a photo line-up and have been unable even after having seen the person not five minutes before). I also have a knack for getting lost even after having gone to the place several times before.

In other cases (situations or events that interest me) I have an almost photographic memory. When reading a book I don't care for I can read the same chapter over and over and not recall the information. When reading a book I enjoy (often science or history textbooks) I not only remember not only the facts of what I read but also the location and layout of the information on the page.

I'm the same way. It's especially interesting while I'm driving. I'll have been through an area twenty or thirty times before, and I it feels like I've never been through there before. If I didn't rely on the logical part of my brain to find where I'm going, I would get hopelessly lost.

On the other hand, if something really catches my attention (as in a special interest), within seconds of seeing something new it feels like I've known it for decades. Maybe this is an Aspie thing? I never thought to consider this, as it's rather amusing when I don't feel like I'm lost.

i have veeery poor memory retention regardless how information is presented to me. usually the only time i remember something is if i do it myself and if its something i need to use my hands for (tactile). i do have a bit of an easier time remembering things presented visually as opposed through audio but my retention is still really bad. i do the same thing where i can pass by the same thing at least once everyday for several months and it looks new to me everytime i see it. if i'm searching for gives for some people in the same department, I usually have to find them one at a time since once I finally found a gift for one person, i've already forgotten what else i've looked at so i have to go back again.

i've also been mocked at by the fact that even though i've been driving for nine years and lived in winnipeg all my life, i only know how to get to a few places without using the GPS feature on my iphone. for places i know how to get to, i only have one route to take and if i'm the one driving i will take that route, when someone tells me to take a different one i get furious and say "no, this is how i get there". if i have to take a different route, regardless if i've been down it 50 times when someone else has driven, i get super anxious which is not good when you're the driver. I've also come up with the theory that if i'm driving somewhere new, i have to drive down the same route at least 3 times before i will remember it, otherwise I'll forget it once I get home.

If I do something and is interesting to me I'll remember that forever. Otherway there is no way for me to remember.