Forgetting Flashcards
What is forgetting
It is the inability to recall info that was encoded
What is total recall?
Memory is an active selective system which store away aspects of our experience and discards other
Forgetting is often failures at encoding, storage or retrieval stage
What is the decay theory?
Decay is the gradual disappearance of information over time from the LTM store
Decay suggests memories fade due to the neglect of retrieval after long periods of time
Bjork (1963) suggested…
The disuse of a memory trace weakness the ability to access it
For instance, participants were presented with 5 words then a distraction task, after 2 seconds- 74% remembered and after 15 seconds- 24% was recalled
Interference theory explains…
Storage and retrieval of information is impaired by the presence of other information
What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?
Retroactive is when new information interference with old memory traces
Proactive is when old information interferences with new memory traces
Describes Ebbighaus (1885) influence in forgetting
Ebbighaus rehearsed 85,000 non sense syallbles over time to measure recall capacity
He found that eventually retention was lost over time and leveled off (Forgetting Curve)
Jenkins and Dallenbauch (1924) study into memory retention
Participants had to learn 10 nonsense syllables
1 group continued with their daily activities and the other group slept
The sleeping group forgot less as distractions were not present
What was the testing effect theory? (Jenkins and Karpicke, 2006)
One group was subject to repeated studying of nonsense syllables and the other was subject to testing
Repeated testing recoup showed a 50% recall higher
What is the displacement theory? (Waugh and Norman, 1965)
When the system is ‘full’ the oldest material is pushed out
In their serial probe task if the number of digits following the probe was small there was a greater recall
What is direct forgetting?
Direct forgetting is repression of memories entering our awareness
For instance, in an item method, participants read a list of words and where told to either forget or remember them, recall was much stronger for the ‘remembered’ words
What is context dependent forgetting and give research evidence
Godden and Baddeley found a 30% huge recall when in the same room as when tested or merely imagining the room assisted recall
Divers learnt a list of words orientated around wet or dry meanings, when in a wet environments wet-related words were remembered more
What is state dependent forgetting and name empirical research
Remembering something better when we are in the same state as we where at the time of learning
Clarke et al. found that victims inability to recall details of a violent crime were due to being less emotionally aroused than at the time of the event
Participants in intoxicated at learning state would readily recall items better when in intoxicated state at time of testing (Transfer-processing - Bradsford et al. 2008)
What is the mood congruency theory?
It states that when we are happy we remember happy events more and positive memories
Pollyanna effect- bias towards recalling positive
What is the DRM paradigm? (Deese, Rodeiger and Mcdermott, 1959)
When participants hear a list of related words they often falsely recall non-present associates
What are gist-based errors?
Participants falsely remember a novel item that is similar to an item they have previously encountered
Schema theory and forgetting (Bower, 1981)
Memory is a reconstructive act dependent on cues and so forgetting occurs when the Schema is not fully formed or the cue is unavailable
Proactive reflects accommodation as existing Schemas are altered
Retroactive reflects assimilation as new information is incorporated into pre existing Schemas
Evaluation research into forgetting
Decay is exceedingly difficult to test
Easy to relearn material if the need arises- indicating forgetting is not complete
Primary and regency (serial position curve) forgetting occurs when it had not yet had the chance to consolidate the hippocampus
Direct forgetting has clinical applications for disorders (PTSD)
In lab studies learning does not occur the same way as in real life- no time pressure, material more complex than nonsense syllables and lacks ecological validity
Adaptive purpose?
Applications to EWT
Wixted (2005) said…
New memories are fragile but clear and old memories are faded but robust
How long does it take to forget most items you have been exposed to if you do not expect to be tested on the material? (Muter, 1995)
3 to 4 seconds
