Psychology Chapter on Forgetting

Learning Objectives

• Students should describe biological factors influencing forgetting.
• Students should describe environmental factors influencing forgetting.
• Students should differentiate between retroactive and proactive interference.
• Students should explain context-dependent and state-dependent memory.

Measuring Forgetting

• Psychologists use recall, recognition, and relearning tasks to measure forgetting.
• Recall involves retrieving previously learned material.
• Recognition involves identifying previously learned material from a set of options.
• Recall is generally more difficult than recognition because it requires generating an answer and then determining if it is correct.
• Relearning is the process of reacquiring previously learned but largely forgotten information.

Biological Reasons for Forgetting

• Memories do not always remain forever.
• There are biological explanations for forgetting.

Biological Explanation of Forgetting

• Decay theory: Information fades if not accessed, primarily applies to short-term memory.
• Passage of time leads to forgetting.
• Head injuries, can lead to retrograde amnesia, where individuals can't remember events before the accident.
• Other factors contributing to memory loss include surgery, poor diet, and diseases.
• Examples include Korsakoff's syndrome (alcohol abuse), and Alzheimer's disease.

Environment and Forgetting

• Lack of attention and inadequate rehearsal contribute to forgetting.
• Ineffective encoding results in information which may never have been stored.
• Interference arises when similar information interferes with the storage or retrieval of other information.

Interference

• Retroactive interference: New learning interferes with recalling old learning.
• Proactive interference: Older learning interferes with recalling newly learned material.
• Similarity in material increases interference.

Situational Factors and Forgetting

• Context-dependent memory refers to remembering information more effectively in the same environment where it was originally learned.
• Cue-dependent forgetting is the inability to retrieve information due to insufficient cues.
• State-dependent memory refers to the ability to remember information better when in the same physiological or mental state as when it was learned.

Forgetting

• Repression: Lack of motivation to remember, consciously pushing things from memory.
• Amnesia can result from head injuries, brain disease, or psychological dysfunction.
  • Psychogenic amnesia is a type of amnesia often triggered by need to escape painful feelings such as guilt, shame, and emotional shock.
  • Examples include dissociative amnesia and dissociative fugue.

Improving Memory

• Mnemonics are memory aids and techniques.

• Organization helps retrieve information.

• Concentration focuses attention for proper encoding and storage.

• Rehearsal strengthens memory, avoid cramming.

• Maintaining information in short-term memory involves rote repetition (maintenance rehearsal).

• Elaboration involves connecting new information to existing knowledge.

• The method of loci uses associating information with locations or tasks.

• Mnemonics combine pieces of information for easier storage (e.g. acronyms, stories).

• Narratives create links to improve recall.

• Chunking groups related information into smaller units.

Special Topics in Memory

• Childhood amnesia: Inability to recall events before age 2.
• Eidetic imagery: Photographic memory.
• Flashbulb memory: Vivid memory of significant or emotionally arousing events.
• Eyewitness testimony: Challenges in accurately recalling details witnessed by an eyewitness.
• Recovered memories: Cases of people recalling past traumatic events which are often controversial.

References

• Morris, C.G., & Maistro, A.A. (2010). Understanding Psychology (9th Ed.). Prentice Hall.
• Rathus, S.A. (2007). Psychology: Concepts and Connections (8th Ed.). Thomson Wadsworth.