Forgetting Flashcards
forgetting
uses a wider set of process than just failing to retrieve
incidental forgetting: Things we forget by accident
motivated forgetting: things we forgot for a reason, either consciously or unconsciously
Studying forgetting
forgetting increases overtime
the amount of information
forgotten can be characterized using a forgetting curve
we never really forget everything
ecological validity
using a realstic experimental situation, allowing conclusions to be generalizrd
but sometimes we cannot control
Meeter et al
forgetting curves cam also be seen for more naturalistic things
a month after we forget things
results: forgetting curves is not an artifact of being in an eperiemt, it is also in real llife about the things we care about remembering.
Bahrick 1984
initial vs long knowledge
long term knowledge may be preserved for years
forgetting curves; First years we lose information quickly, after 3 years we lose information pretty slow whether its been 10 years or 50 years
forgetting curve
shape of function that tracks process of knowledge and shows forgetting over time.
Andy took organic chemistry ten years ago. Assuming
his forgetting follows a standard curve, how much does
he probably remember now?
A. The same amount as right after he took the final
B. He has probably forgotten everything
C. He likely has some long-term knowledge that has
not been forgotten
D. All of what he learned in the class
C. He likely has some long-term knowledge that has
not been forgotten
factors that improve memory: Consolidation Laws
Jost’s Law: If two associations are of equal strength
but of different age, the older one diminishes less with
time
- going to forget some information over time
Ribot’s Law: retrograde amnesia affects newer
memories more than older memories
- time component to what memories are more stable
older memories are forgotten less and more resistant to things to brain damage.
Why is this? Consolidation!
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Consolidation
The process of making a new memory a more
permanent part of the brain
changing clothes for winter, clothes are actively being used slowly moving clothes to another spot little by little
Systemic: mapping traces to areas of cortex
Process may take years
Testing effect
more testing results in better learning
Carpenter, Pashler, Wixted, and Vul (2008)
testing effect
had people learn 60 cool facts and tracked their learning over months
some facts were tested and others were studies
results:study test: remains higher over time
restudy:
people are forgetting less over time in the restudy condition
than those that did not
Spacing
more space between studies decreases forgotten
Memory type
implicit and explicit memoru may be at different rates.
Tulving, Schacter, and Stark (1982)
Showed participants a list of 96 words
Explicit: asked if they recognized the word
Implicit: filled in word fragments, demonstrate the knowledge by doing the skull. Cannot really explain it
Tulving, Schacter, and Stark (1982): Explicit and implicit memory tasks
Showed participants a list of 96 words
Explicit: asked if they recognized the word
Implicit: filled in word fragments, demonstrate the knowledge by doing the skull. Cannot really explain it
resutls; Tested people 1 hr and 7 days, for recognition they are good after an hour but not after 7 days
for fragments they are good for both
priming remains the same up to a week.
explicit memory has underone forgetting under a week, but implict has not
Dumitra has been studying Sanskrit for several years,
but she has had to learn a lot of new words in the
literature class she is taking right now. The reason she
forgets newer words but not older ones is likely due to:
A. Consolidation
B. Implicit memory
C. The forgetting curve
D. Mnemonics
