Forgetting - Displacement

Question 1

What is meant by displacement in memory

Answer 1

Displacement seeks to explain forgetting in STM, and suggests it is due to a lack of availability.

Question 2

define displacement theory of forgetting

Answer 2

• Displacement theory provides a simle explanation for forgetting; because of STM limited capacity, (suggested by Miller to be 7+/- 2 items) it can only hold small amounts of information.
• When STM is ‘full’, new information displaces or ‘pushes out’ old information and takes its place.
• The old information which is displaced is forgotten in STM.

assumed that info that had been in STM the longest is displaced first

Question 3

how does Murdock’s 1974 study fit in

Answer 3

Murdock 1974 supports the view that displacement was responsible for the loss of information from short-term memory through the use of the free-recall method. The findings from Murdock 1974 discovered the primary and recency effects. The displaement theory of forgetting from STM can explain the recency effect - the last few words that were presented in the list have not yet been displaced from STM and so are available for recall.

The primacy effect can be explained using Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model

Question 4

Evaluate displacement theory of forgetting

support from msm

Answer 4

A strength of displacement theory is that it provides a good account of how forgetting might take place in Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1968) model of short-term memory. However, it is also clear that the short-term memory store is much more complex than proposed in Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model. This means that while it is plausible the support is limited due to its own oversimplification.

Question 5

Evaluate displacement theory of forgetting

support from spc

Answer 5

A strength of displacement theory is that Murdock’s (1962) serial position experiment supports the idea of forgetting due to displacement from STM, however this could be due to decay. Forgetting from STM can occur due to displacement or due to decay, and it is often very difficult to tell which one it is. This means that displacement theory of forgetting can only be used with other theories.