Me 2.7 Forgetting and Other Memory Challenges Flashcards
Forgetting unimportant information helps us remember what matters most.
Benefit of forgetting
Super memory being able to remember every detail, but interferes with normal life as junk memory fills up consciousness. One memory cues another.
Highly Superior autobiographical memory
a type of memory loss that occurs when you can’t form new memories. Still can do automatic processing.
Anterograde amnesia
the inability to recall or remember past experiences. Still can do automatic processing.
Retrograde amnesia
Information never properly encoded into long-term memory.
Example: Not remembering someone’s name because you never fully paid attention to it
Encoding Failure
Information not encoded into long term memory being lost as more information come in replacing new ones.
Displacement
how information stored in the brain gradually fades away
Storage decay
illustrates how time impacts memory retention
Key Point: Forgetting occurs rapidly after initial learning but levels off over time
Example: Quickly forgetting details of a new concept learned
in class, but retaining some core ideas over a longer period
The forgetting curve
A hypothetical change in the physical brain after memorisation.
memory trace
information that has been previously encoded and stored in long-term memory cannot be accessed or retrieved when needed.
Retrieval failure
Knowing that you know
something but being unable to recall it at the moment
Example: Struggling to recall a familiar word or name
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
Old information hinders the recall of new information
Example: Difficulty remembering a new phone number because an old one keeps coming to mind
Proactive Interference
New information makes it hard to recall old information
Example: Forgetting an old password after creating a new one
Retroactive Interference
According to psychodynamic theorists,
some memories are forgotten to protect the ego from distress
Example: Forgetting a traumatic childhood event
as a defence mechanism to avoid emotional pain
Repression
Memories are woven together again, not simply retrieved.
Constructive Memory
A process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again.
Reconsolidation
Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
Example: Misremembering details of an accident after hearing incorrect accounts from others
Misinformation Effect
Enhanced memory for imagined events, which can lead to false memories
Example: Believing you experienced something that you only imagined or dreamed
Imagination Inflation
Inability to remember where, when,
or how previously learned information was acquired.
Example: Recalling a fact but not remembering whether you read it in a book or heard it from a friend
Source Amnesia
