Download introduction to theories of forgetting - NW 14-19

EXPLANATIONS OF FORGETTING :
GUIDED SELF-STUDY
AIMS :
 To introduce students to major areas of study in cognitive psychology
(theories of forgetting).
 To give students an understanding of methodological approaches in
cognitive psychology.
 To develop a critical awareness of theories and research in cognitive
psychology.
 To develop an appreciation of how science works in cognitive psychology.
E.Day/Moodle/PSP2/Forgetting
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WHAT IS GUIDED SELF STUDY????
Guided self study gives you the opportunity to become a more independent learner. At
GCSE level you were very dependent on your teacher to give you the relevant
information which you had to learn for your exams. However, to be successful at higher
levels of study (AS, A level and degree) you need to become increasingly independent in
your approach to study.
Why ??? Because of the way you are assessed at AS level. Successfully answering an
AS exam question requires more than regurgitating information you have learned – you
have to understand and analyse the information (not just remember it!). Research on
the topic of memory and forgetting has shown that you will remember more information
if you have been active in searching for and thinking about the information.
So you need to change from the dependent baby bird approach to learning to the
independent, active predator seeking its target!!!
FROM :
TO :
TUTOR SUPPORT
You will not be left to fend entirely for your self- your tutor will guide you in this
process and this pack of materials will ensure that you do cover the essential elements
of the subject. You will have to hand in the pack with all the activities completed in a
couple of weeks.
Begin to study the topic of forgetting as soon as you are given the materials- you can
then ask your tutor if you have any queries as you go along.
Later on in the course your tutor will also monitor your understanding of the topic by
setting some assessment activities. Remember – exam entry is based on successful
progress on the course so you must work through the information in the pack as
thoroughly as possible – if you don’t you are only cheating yourself out of a good AS level
grade!
E.Day/Moodle/PSP2/Forgetting
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What do I need to know?
You need to know about the following Explanations of forgetting :
 trace decay (p.4)
 displacement (p.8)
 interference (p.11)
 retrieval failure ( absence of context & cues) (p.15)
 lack of consolidation (p.18)
 motivated forgetting including repression (p.21)
What do I need to be able to do????
For each explanation you should be able to:
 Describe and explain the key points of the theory/explanation
 Describe a research study which supports the explanation
 Explain the advantages/strengths of the explanation
 Discuss the problems/ limitations of the explanation
 Compare one explanation with others
How will I be able to achieve this???
 By working through this pack and completing all the activities included.
 By reading the relevant sections in your textbook and making your own notes on
each explanation of forgetting.
 By completing the past exam questions which are included at the end of the pack.
How long will this take me???
Depends on how hard you work on the pack!. Your tutor will set a deadline for completing
the pack. You must then submit the workbook (with all the activities fully completed)
and the past exam questions.
E.Day/Moodle/PSP2/Forgetting
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INTRODUCTION TO THEORIES OF FORGETTING
We are all familiar with the experience of forgetting and generally consider it to be a
real problem- especially when trying to revise for exams !
Nevertheless, forgetting is an absolute necessity for our survival. Just imagine what it
would be like to remember every conversation you'd ever had, every meal you'd ever
eaten, every car that had passed you in the street!!!
Without the facility to forget, all past events would intrude into our conscious minds,
making it impossible to concentrate and therefore to function effectively.
When considering the reasons why we forget, it is important to distinguish between
problems of availability and problems of accessibility.
Availability : If items have not
been
encoded or not kept in storage in the
first place, then they are not available
and no amount of thinking about them or
attempts to recall them will result in
remembering- they simply are not
there, so they cannot be recalled.
Accessibility : In contrast, items
that are in store (in LTM) but cannot be
recalled are not accessible but may be
remembered if appropriate cues are
present- these items can be regarded as
hidden or buried, but not lost
altogether.
It's also important to note that sometimes recalled material is altered. This may
perhaps occur to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of events that are partially
remembered, a process called
confabulation.
ACTIVITY : As you study each theory of memory, decide whether it is a problem of
Availability
or
Accessibility.
E.Day/Moodle/PSP2/Forgetting
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THEORIES OF FORGETTING : Decay
This is a biological explanation for forgetting.
It has been proposed that memory traces decay i.e. fade away over time. This theory
can be used to explain forgetting from STM (short-term memory) and LTM (long term
memory).
STM : Hebb (1949) argued that new
memories cause changes in the brain
creating a neurological memory trace and
that this, if not used occasionally, will
eventually fade away. When information
is received into STM the new
information leaves a delicate
physiological trace in the brain due to
the activation of neurons. This trace is
called an engram. According to this
explanation the information remains in
STM for as long as this engram remains
intact/unchanged. However, the engram
decays (degrades) naturally over time
(duration) unless it is maintained.
LTM : Maintenance can occur through either:
Rehearsal of the information or frequent recall of information.
If the engram is maintained in either of these ways it
becomes more permanent with additional learning and
repetition.
If neither of these occurs the memory (engram) will be
forgotten.
So if new information is sufficiently rehearsed the trace
is reinforced, becomes fixed more permanently in LTM and is less likely to fade.
However, even well established memories can fade over time – this is called the Law of
Disuse (use it or lose it!!)
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DECAY IN STM :
Research Evidence : Drag and Drop each section of the research study into its
correct place.
Decay in Short Term Memory
Reitman (1974)
Study
Aim
Method
Results
Conclusions
Activity : Identify 2 limitations of the method used in this research
study.
Limitations of the
research
Male students were shown a list of five words for 2
seconds. They then listened out for a faint tone through a
pair of headphones (given at 15 seconds).
Then they tried to recall the words.
As the tone detection task required effort thus preventing
memorizing the words but no new information was
received; then the loss must have been due to decay.
Word recall fell by 24% over the 15 second
interval
To investigate whether decay could cause forgetting
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DECAY IN LTM :
Research Evidence : Ebbinghaus was one of the first to scientifically study forgetting
in experiments where is used himself as the subject,
METHOD : Ebbinghaus tested his memory using three-letter nonsense syllables e.g XMP
Activity : Why did Ebbinghaus use these three letter nonsense trigrams? Why didn’t he
use ordinary words?
In order to test his memory for new information, Ebbinghaus tested his memory for
periods of time ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days. He then published his findings in
1885 in Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology.
RESULTS : His results, plotted in what is known as the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve,
revealed a relationship between forgetting and time.
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Initially, information is often lost very quickly after it is learned.
Ebbinghaus discovered that a significant amount of information was forgotten within
twenty minutes of learning and over half of the nonsense material he learned was
forgotten within an hour.
Although he forgot within a day almost two thirds of the material he learned, retention
of the material did not decline much beyond that period. In other words, if information
is retained for a day, the knowledge was there to stay.
Factors such as how the information was learned and how frequently it was rehearsed
play a role in how quickly these memories are lost.
The forgetting curve also showed that forgetting does not continue to decline until all of
the information is lost. At a certain point, the amount of forgetting levels off. It
indicates that information stored in long-term memory is surprisingly stable.
CONCLUSION : so what conclusions can we draw from Ebbinghaus’ research???
Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve is actually much more dramatic than a forgetting curve
would be for meaningful material. When the learner is able to connect new information
with old information, he still might forget what was learned, but the amount and speed
of forgetting is likely to be less than what Ebbinghaus experienced.
EVALUATION OF DECAY THEORY
Strengths :


One strength of decay as an explanation of forgetting is that it has supporting
research provided by Reitman (STM) AND Ebbinghaus (LTM). .
A further strength of decay is that the research on which it is based is repeatable.
Research was carried out in a controlled lab environment where all variables can be
measured and manipulated. As a result this type of research is scientific. This
suggests that research into the nature of forgetting is reliable.
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Weaknesses :

One weakness of trace decay is that it has opposing evidence provided by Jenkins
and Dallenbach (1924).
Jenkins & Dallenback (1924)
Method : In this study 2 groups of participants had to learn 10 nonsense syllables.
Group 1 went to sleep immediately after learning, group 2 carried on with their normal
daytime activities. All participants were then tested after 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours after the
initial learning.
If decay is the primacy source of forgetting, then the rates of forgetting should be
similar in the awake and the sleep conditions.
Results :
Group 1 (who slept) had the lowest level of forgetting, whereas group 2 (who stayed
awake) had far greater levels of forgetting.
This suggests that forgetting in STM may not be due to trace decay as it cannot
account for the lower levels of forgetting in group 1, and hence other factors must play
a part like interference.

A further weakness of decay is that the research on which it is based lacks
ecological validity. Research supporting decay explanation has been carried out in an
artificial, laboratory setting. When meaningful material is used, decay is harder to
demonstrate. This suggests that the ideas of decay explanation cannot be applied to
real life settings.
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


Another problem with decay theory is that it does not explain why some trivia and
unimportant material, such as song titles and commercial jingles, seem to persist in
memory – we (usually!!) do not repeat/rehearse this information on a regular basis so
in the trace should decay.
Decay theory cannot really explain why we can remember events from our distant
past even though we have not thought about them for a long time. Bahrick (1984)
found that people still remembered a substantial amount of Spanish 50 years after
taking the subject at school, although most had hardly used Spanish at all in the
intervening years.
Solso (1995) argues that neurological decay can explain forgetting in Alzheimer’s
disease but is not a very satisfactory explanation for normal forgetting.
Activity : Complete the activity on decay theory
DESCRIPTION
DECAY: ( links between
brain cells die away)
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
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THEORIES OF FORGETTING : DISPLACEMENT.
A further explanation of forgetting in STM comes from Displacement. This theory is
based on the idea that STM has a limited capacity. For example Miller believed the
capacity of STM to be 7+/- 2. If this is the case when STM is ‘full’ of information
(reaching its maximum capacity) no more information can be stored here.
However, so that new information can be processed any new information that enters
STM when it is full must replace some of the original information. It is this
‘displacement’ of information that leads to forgetting. Once the information is ‘pushed
out’ or replaced by new information it is forgotten permanently from STM.
Imagine you are asked to remember a telephone number : 01492547612
You only have 7 “slots” to hold the information, so as you try to remember the final few
digits (7612), you would have to push out or displace the first few items (0 & 1) to make
room for the later information.
2 1 6 7
4
5
2
9
4
1
0
Displaced (forgotten)
WARNING : THIS IS A BIT COMPLICATED SO YOU WILL NEED TO READ
THROUGH IT A FEW TIMES – DON’T JUST GIVE UP!!!
Research Evidence : Waugh and Norman (1965).
Aim : to investigate the role of displacement in forgetting in STM.
Method : a “Probe” digit task
• A series of 16 digits is presented one at a time
• The subject has to report the number that followed the previous instance of the final
number.
• e.g., 5 1 9 6 3 5 1 4 2 8 6 2 7 3 9 4
– The final digit is 4
– The number following the previous 4 is 2
519635142 8627394
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Results :
If the probe was towards the end of the list participants were far more likely to recall
the correct digit than if it had been at the beginning suggesting that later information
had pushed earlier information out of memory – the previous information had been
displaced by the new information. . Forgetting also varied with the number of digits
presented between the probe and the end of the list
Conclusion: Digits at the end of the list were still in STM, whereas those earlier in the
list (e.g. 9), had been displaced by later digits.
Support for the Theory :
 One strength of displacement as an explanation of forgetting in STM is that it has
supporting research provided by Waugh and Norman (1965). They presented
participants with a series of 16 digits, one of these was repeated – the probe. The
pps then had to recall the digit that followed the probe they found that if the probe
was near the beginning of the list recall was much poorer than if it was towards the
end of the list. This suggests that there is evidence for the idea of displacement
causing forgetting in STM, because pps could not remember words at the beginning
because new digits had displaced them.

A further strength of displacement is that the research on which it is based is
repeatable. Research into the nature of forgetting in LTM is carried out in a
controlled lab environment where all variables can be measured and manipulated. As a
result this type of research is scientific. This suggests that research into the nature
of forgetting in LTM is reliable.

The idea of displacement as an explanation of forgetting from STM fits in with
Atkinson & Schifrin’s multi-store model of memory – it supports their ideas about the
nature of STM and its limited capacity of 7 items.
Limitations :
 One weakness of displacement is that it has opposing evidence provided by a second
test by Waugh and Norman (1965). Here they repeated their original design except
that they presented the digits at different speeds. They found that those repeated
more quickly showed less forgetting than in original trials. This suggests that
forgetting in STM may not be due to displacement (capacity), instead this research
supports the idea that it may be the delay (time – trace decay).
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Evaluation point: in practice it is very difficult to separate out the effects of
displacement and decay since adding more material to create displacement also
takes longer, creating time for decay! However, generally displacement is seen as a
better explanation of forgetting from STM.

A further weakness of displacement is that the research on which it is based lacks
ecological validity. Research supporting the displacement explanation has been
carried out in an artificial, laboratory setting. When meaningful material is used,
which means something to the participant, displacement is harder to demonstrate.
This suggests that the ideas of displacement cannot be applied to real life settings.

This is a limited explanation as it can only explain forgetting from STM
Activity : Complete the worksheet on displacement
DESCRIPTION
DISPLACEMENT:
(no more room!!)
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
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THEORIES OF FORGETTING : Interference
The theory of interference proposes that there are occasions when we forget because
of competition from new material. This means that what takes place between learning
and recall sometimes influences what is and is not available to be remembered- the
information is in memory but becomes confused with other information.
This type of forgetting is especially common when you have to recall isolated facts. For
example, when you change phone numbers, the learning of the new one makes it difficult
to remember the old one but occasionally the memory of the old one interferes with the
new one (when asked for your phone number, you suddenly give your old one).
This example demonstrates the fact that there are two types of interference:
Retroactive interference occurs when new learning interferes with the retrieval of old
learning;
Suppose you are at a party and are
introduced to someone called Mary, then
a little later to a women called Julia. An
hour later, after having talked to several
other people, you meet up with Mary but
call her Julia. This is an example of
retroactive interference since the
learning of new information (the name
Julia) has interfered with the memory
for old information, the name Mary.
Proactive interference occurs when old
learning interferes with new learning.
interference in which old information
interferes with the learning of new
material.
When you drive a new car in which the
indicator lever and the windscreen wiper
control are the opposite way round to
those in the car you used to drive, you
find yourself putting on the windscreen
wipers every time you go round a corner.
This is an example of proactive
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Activity : Identify whether in each case this is an example of retroactive or proactive
interference.
Example
Proactive or
Retroactive ?
Alison drove a left-hand drive car all the time she was in Spain.
Because the car was left-hand drive, the passenger and driver
positions were the opposite to those in her British car. When she
came home, she kept going to open the passenger’s door instead of
the driver’s door
Andrea has been studying for examinations in Italian and Spanish.
She spent hours revising Italian vocabulary some weeks ago. More
recently she has revised the Spanish words. In the Italian exam she
sometimes wrote Spanish words by mistake instead of Italian.
Mike was introduced to Jane 3 weeks ago and she gave him her phone
number. More recently Mike has met Helen. He made the
unfortunate mistake of ringing Jane’s number and calling her Helen.
Steve is stopped by the police. When he gets out of the car they ask
him his registration number but unfortunately, he gives the number
for his old car which makes them very suspicious!
Experimental Designs for Studying Interference
Retroactive Interference:
Interference Group
Control Group
Study A
Study A
Study B
-
Test A
Test A
Study A
-
Study B
Study B
Test B
Test B
Proactive Interference:
Interference Group
Control Group
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Research Evidence : Barnes & Underwood (1959)
Aim : to demonstrate the interference effect in forgetting
Method :
Participants learned a list of paired-associates until perfect recall: A-B (e.g., chair-dog)
They then studied a second list with the first terms paired with new words: A-C (e.g.,
chair-tree)
They studied this second list 1, 5, 10, or 20 times
Participants were then tested on memory for both response terms:
A _____, _____ (e.g., chair _____, _____)
Results:
Activity :
What conclusions can we draw from this graph?
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Do the results support the interference theory of forgetting? Give a reason for
your answer.
Activity : Identify 2 limitations of this research study.
One key problem is that these kinds of research do not use real life tasks. A study
which used a more realistic setting was investigated by Baddeley.
Time versus intervening (similar) experiences as predictors of forgetting (Baddeley
& Hitch, 1977)
Method :Two rugby teams recalled
games played in a season.
of games and elapsed time as predictors
of forgetting.
There was a general decline in recall over
time and with the increased number of
games (though some games are more
memorable)
Players had missed some games, so could
the researchers could compare number
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Results:
They found that the number of
intervening games was the only
significant predictor. In general, there
is little positive evidence for
spontaneous decay of memory traces,
but ample evidence for interference
There are three general principles that govern interference:
1. The greater the similarity between two sets of material, the greater the
interference. This can be quite easily demonstrated by asking people to learn one list of
words and then learn a similar list, then compare their recall with that of people asked
to remember the same first list and then learn a very different list. The people in the
first condition will invariably do much worse than those in the second condition.
2. Meaningless material is more susceptible to interference than meaningful
material.
3. The more difficult the distracting task between learning and recall, the more it
will interfere with learning. If you revise for a history exam and then revise
another difficult topic, this new learning will interfere more than if you did the
ironing, a simpler and less relevant task.
In evaluation of this theory, many studies have demonstrated that interference
certainly affects recall but it is unlikely to be the only reason why we forget.
Activity : Having studied Interference theory of forgetting, what advice would you give
to a student who is going to spend the evening revising for their AS level exams, to help
them avoid forgetting information due to interference? (Continue overleaf)
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Activity : Complete the worksheet on interference
DESCRIPTION
INTERFERENCE
( learning something else gets in
the way)
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
STRENGTHS
LIMITATIONS
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THEORIES OF FORGETTING : RETRIEVAL FAILURE
(absence of Context and Cues).
Failure of Retrieval
All of us, at some time or another, have had the irritating experience of knowing that we
know something but not being able to recall it- the so-called 'tip-of-the-tongue'
phenomenon. Information may be stored in memory but we cannot always retrieve it
when we want to. This is failure due to lack of accessibility rather than lack of
availability.
CONTEXT & FORGETTING
The context in which we experience or learn something is crucial. Many of us will have
had experience of memories coming 'flooding back' when we return to old haunts.
Similarly, we may be able to recall the names of classmates who we have not seen for
many years if we see an old school photograph.
Sometimes, as mentioned in the introduction, a particular piece of music may bring back
memories, or even a taste. Particularly evocative of old memories are smells.
The effect of context on forgetting is known as context dependent forgetting or cue
dependent forgetting. Provided with the right cues, we can quickly recover memories as
demonstrated by many experimental studies.
Godden & Baddeley (1975) asked divers
to learn a list of 40 words, either
underwater or on land.
When tested for free recall, divers who
learned the list under water and tried to
recall it underwater remembered far
more words than those who learnt it
underwater but were tested on land.
Similarly, those who learned the list on
land also remembered more when tested
in the same context rather than
underwater.
Study
Environment
Dry
Wet
This clearly demonstrates the usefulness
of environmental cues in aiding recall
and, of course, explains why police
officers use reconstructions in their
investigations
Test
Environment
Dry
Wet
13.4
8.5
8.4
11.5
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Aggleton & Waskett (1999) Recreating the Context through Smells.
Aim : They investigated people's recall of a visit they had made to the Jorvik Viking
museum in York some six to seven years previously to illustrate the importance of
context on forgetting.
Method : Visitors to this museum experience a variety of strong smells as they pass
around the centre. These include the smell of burnt wood, of apples, of acrid rubbish
and of a fish market.
Three groups of participants filled out a questionnaire about the museum on two
separate occasions, five minutes apart.
The first group completed the
questionnaire while being presented with
all the Viking smells in bottles and told
they could savour them whenever they
wished, and then completed it again in
the presence of unrelated smells.
A second group filled out the questionnaire first with the unrelated odours and then
again while smelling the appropriate ones.
A control group completed the questionnaire with no odours present.
Results; The findings clearly demonstrated the effect that the Viking odours had on
recall.
The first group showed the best recall, with their second attempt not much worse than
their first.
The second group, as expected, showed significantly better recall on the second
questionnaire than the first one.
The control group showed the worse recall of both of them.
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Conclusion : Giving a physical cue ( odour) to recreate the context helped participants
to remember. Not having those cues meant that their memory for the museum was
worse.
Mood dependent forgetting and State dependent forgetting
It is not only the physical context which is important in remembering and forgetting.
Recall is also impaired if we try to remember something when we are in a different
mood, or a different state- types of forgetting known as mood dependent forgetting and
state dependent forgetting respectively.
Mood Dependent Forgetting :
Bower (1981) showed that when asked about their past lives, people in a depressed
mood tend to recall an unusually large number of sad and unhappy events.
State dependent forgetting :
Several studies have also demonstrated that people who are drunk when asked to learn
something are better able to do so when again under the influence of alcohol that when
sober (eg. Lowe, 1981).
When victims of violent crimes have trouble recalling details of the experience, it may
be in part because they are far less emotionally aroused than they were at the time of
the crime (Clark et al, 1987).
Activity : Explain the ways in which
a knowledge of retrieval failure as an
explanation for forgetting could help
you to prepare for your exams.
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Activity : Complete the worksheet on retrieval failure
DESCRIPTION
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
RETRIEVAL FAILURE (CONTEXT)
( being in a different place from where you learned
the information)
RETRIEVAL FAILURE (CUES)
( being in a different state from when you learned
the information)
STRENGTHS
E.Day/AS/PSYB2/ForgettingGSS
LIMITATIONS
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THEORIES OF FORGETTING : LACK OF CONSOLIDATION
Memory also relies on biological processes – when we make a new memory, out brain
changes in some way.
Neural Connections
The human brain has roughly 100 billion neurons ( brain cells) , which are designed to
receive, process and transmit information. Similar to other cells in the body, neurons
have a nucleus and cytoplasm, but they differ in that they also have distinct cellular
extensions called axons and dendrites.
Axons allow neurons to send information to neighboring cells.
Dendrites serve as cellular “antennae” for receiving signals from other cells.
Brain cells are not joined to each other – there is a very small gap between each cell
called the synapse.
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ACTIVITY ; Follow this link for a demonstration of how the synapse works.
http://www.cynnal.co.uk/cif/seicoleg/Animeiddiadau/Saesneg/synaps/synap
s.html
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers which pass across the synapse and carry
messages from one cell to another. Each neuron can make over a thousand connections
with neighboring cells.
Neurotransmitters can either inhibit (prevent) or stimulate (encourage) the
performance of the neurones. Consolidation theory argues that this process of
modifying and changing brain cells (neurones) when you learn new information is called
consolidation.
Recently formed memories that are still being consolidated are especially vulnerable to
interference and forgetting.
New memories may be vivid but fragile – easily forgotten whereas old memories may be
more vague but robust – they last a long time
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Research Evidence : Drachman (1979)
Aim : to investigate how the process of consolidating a new memory can be disrupted,
increasing forgetting.
Method : a drug which blocked certain neurotransmitters was given to the experimental
group. The control group did not get the drug.
Participants had to learn a list of words and then recall them after 60 seconds.
Results : the control group remembered twice as many words as the experimental group.
Conclusion: To consolidate a memory, certain neurotransmitters are important. If this
biological process is disrupted, this means that the memory cannot be formed in the
first place. (You cannot remember what you did not put in to your memory!!!)
Research Evidence : Yarnell & Lynch (1970)
Aim : to investigate the impact of a blow to the head and concussion on memory loss.
Method : The study investigated American football players who were knocked out during
play. As soon as they came round they were asked about details of the play at the time
of the incident and then asked 3 and 20 mins later as well.
Results : when asked immediately they came round footballers gave a reasonably
accurate statement about the play just before their accident. However, when they were
asked 3 or 20 mins later they could give no information.
Conclusion: They had initially formed a memory as indicated by the fact they could
remember some details when asked as soon as they came round but the blow to the head
had disrupted the process of consolidating the memory needed to make it more
permanent.
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Other research Evidence :
 Jenkins and Dallenbach's (1924) classic study showed that there is much less
forgetting when participants sleep between learning and test—this is explained as a
reduction in disruption to the consolidation process.
 MARMIE .c The Associated Press PARIS (Sept. 19, 1997) - Bodyguard Trevor ReesJones, the sole survivor of the accident that killed Princess Diana, does not
remember the circumstances of the crash according to a judicial source. Doctors had
said all along that the large doses of anesthesia given to Rees-Jones during surgery,
along with the trauma of the accident, might affect his memory.
 People who drink excessive alcohol sometimes suffer from "blackout" – a failure to
remember what happened when they were drunk. This is probably due to a failure in
consolidation because the alcohol affected the neurotransmitters at the synapse.
Activity : Drag & Drop the strengths and weaknesses of Consolidation theory into the
table below.
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
The explanation fails to explain why some types of
information are more likely to be remembered than
others e.g, information which is meaningful to us is more
resistant to forgetting.
The theory explains the influence of our biology on our
psychology
The research evidence clears shows that lack of
consolidation is involved in forgetting
There is no clear explanation on how long is required for
consolidation to take place.
The explanation matches in with what we already know
about the nervous system and the way in brain processes
operate
Not everyone who forgets has been given a special drug
or had a blow to the head.
Explains why the rate of forgetting increases over time
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Activity : Complete the worksheet on lack of consolidation
DESCRIPTION
LACK OF
CONSOLIDATION
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
STRENGTHS
(Not enough time spent on the
memory so it did not enter
memory in the first place!)
LIMITATIONS
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THEORIES OF FORGETTING :
MOTIVATED FORGETTING including Repression.
Freud's Iceberg Model for Unconscious, Pre-conscious, & Conscious
Freud likened the
human mind to an
iceberg, the
greater part being
concealed below
the surface. Only
10% of an iceberg
is visible
(conscious)
whereas the other
90% is beneath the
water
(preconscious and
unconscious).
The tip is the only part
feely available to us, this is
the conscious mind.
The part of our mind that is ‘below
the surface’ is the unconscious.
This contains unresolved conflicts
and has a powerful effect on our
behaviour and experience. Freud
argued that many of these conflicts
will show up in our fantasies and
dreams, but the conflicts are so
threatening that they appear in
disguised forms, in the shape of
symbols. We can never see directly
into the unconscious. The Unconscious
is allotted an overwhelming 75%-80%.
According to Freud, there are three levels of consciousness:
Conscious (small): this is the part of the mind that holds what you’re aware of. You can
verbalize about your conscious experience and you can think about it in a logical fashion.
Preconscious (small-medium): this is ordinary memory. So although things stored here
aren’t in the conscious, they can be readily brought into conscious.
Unconscious (enormous): Freud felt that this part of the mind was not directly
accessible to awareness. In part, he saw it as a dump box for urges, feelings and ideas
that are tied to anxiety, conflict and pain.
These feelings and thoughts have not disappeared and according to Freud, they are
there, exerting influence on our actions and our conscious mind and behaviour.
Freud argued that extremely painful or threatening memories, in other words those
associated with great anxiety, are forced into the unconscious mind so that our
conscious mind is protected from them. He called this process repression.
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Repression is an ego-defence mechanism- a way of protecting the ego from information
it would rather ignore.
Research Evidence for Repression : Williams (1994)
Aim : Williams wanted to find out whether women could recall incidents of childhood
abuse.
Method : 129 women were given extended interviews about their sexual histories. .
Hospital documentation showed that they had been abused between the ages of 10
months and 12 years. When interviewed 17 years later, they were aged between 18 and
31.
Results : 38% of the women failed to report the abusive episode documented by the
hospital authorities. However, most women did report their general experience of being
abused.
Conclusion : Participants failed to recall specific episodes of abuse because the
memories had been repressed.
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Activity : Can you think of any other reasons why the women did not report the
specific abusive episode to the researchers???
Activity : Can you think of any general criticisms/limitations of Freud’s theory of
forgetting ??
Motivated Forgetting
Some later psychologists have adapted Freud’s theory of repression to form the basis of
a more general term, motivated forgetting, which includes a variety of unpleasant
reasons why we forget, including embarrassment, guilt, shock and avoidance of
humiliation.
There are considerable problems with empirically testing this theory. Experiments have
been conducted in which recall of words learnt under conditions that are either anxietyprovoking or free from anxiety have been compared. There are few differences
between the two conditions, probably because no experimentally induced situation could
or should equate to extremely painful incidents involved in some clinical cases.
Holmes (1990) reviewed a series of such studies and concluded that the concept of
repression had not been validated with experimental research.
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Myers & Brewin (1994) conducted a study in which they compared female participants
classified as repressers (low in anxiety, high in defensiveness) with those who were
high in anxiety but less defensive and those who were low in anxiety and low in
defensiveness (judged by the use of psychometric tests).
They found that repressers took longer than either of the other two groups to recall
unhappy childhood memories and the researchers offer this as evidence of repression.
However, the whole point of repression is that it blocks traumatic memories so forcibly
that they cannot under normal circumstances be recalled. Even when our defences are
down, such as during sleep, these memories, according to Freud, are unlikely to emerge
unless in a very disguised form, and years of therapy may be required before they can
be uncovered.
Most of the evidence related to the theory of repression has been obtained in a clinical
setting in which people in therapy recall long-buried memories of traumatic childhood
experiences. However, these memories are often difficult to corroborate and on
occasions have been shown to be definitely fictitious.
Case Study on False Memory Syndrome.
One such case is that of Beth Rutherford who recalled under therapy that her father
had regularly raped her during her childhood, sometimes with her mother holding her
down. This had resulted in at least two pregnancies which she had herself aborted.
Medical examination of Beth at the age of 22 showed her still to be a virgin.
In this case it was possible to show that the memories were false but it is often
impossible to establish whether such memories are accurate reflections of real
happenings or are reconstructions.
The phenomenon of False Memory Syndrome has understandably caused untold misery
and confusion. Taking false memory syndrome seriously means doubting the testimony of
people who could indeed have been the victims of horrific crimes, whereas taking the
memories at face value can, as in the case described above, mean that innocent people
have their lives destroyed and families are unnecessarily torn apart. This is why the
concept of repression remains very controversial.
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Activity : Complete the worksheet on motivated forgetting
DESCRIPTION
MOTIVATED FORGETING
(REPRESSION)
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
STRENGTHS
( unconsciously suppressing
unpleasant memories)
LIMITATIONS
Activity : You have now studied all the theories of forgetting so take the forgetting quiz
to test out your knowledge. Try not to look back over your notes – if you cannot
remember what you have read, you did not apply the theories you have studied to your
own use of memory!!!
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Forgetting Quiz
Fill in the blanks with the words at the end of the quiz. Each word is used only once.
There are several explanations for forgetting. The ____________________ theory suggests biological
reasons for loss of memories. In short-term memory, forgetting happens because connections between
neurons do not become ____________________ unless information is rehearsed. Loss from long-term
memory occurs if the information is not used ____________________. Peterson and Peterson (1959)
found that the ____________________ the delay before recalling a trigram, the less likely a participant
was to remember it.
Interference theory suggests that events taking place between learning and recall cause loss of
information. There are two types of interference:
● ____________________ interference, which happens when previously learned items cause us to
forget newer ones;
● ____________________ interference, which happens when recently learned information causes us to
forget earlier information.
Baddeley and Hitch (1977) showed that interference, not decay, caused forgetting in rugby players.
Recall of teams they had played depended on the ____________________ of games played in between,
not the ____________________ that had elapsed.
Some forgetting is due to ____________________ rather than to loss of information.
____________________ can act as a cue to help access memories. This is useful for
____________________, as returning to the scene of the crime can help them to remember details of
the event. Godden and Baddeley (1975) showed that participants
remembered ____________________ words if they were required to recall them in a different
environment than that in which they had learned them. Organisation also assists recall, for example
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____________________ headings can act as cues. Tulving and Pearlstone (1966) found that giving
participants the headings for words they had remembered caused them to recall
____________________ words than those who did not have the headings.
____________________ is an explanation for forgetting from short-term memory. Old items are
pushed out of short-term memory by newer ones coming in, because it has a ____________________
capacity. Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) supported this idea by showing that when recalling a list, most
items are forgotten from the middle,
whereas recall of the first few items is good (the ____________________ effect), as is recall of the last
few items (the ____________________ effect). This happens because the beginning of the list is held
in ____________________-term memory and the end of the list is held in ____________________term memory.
____________________ is also called ____________________ forgetting because it suggests that
some memories are ‘pushed’ into the ____________________ to protect us from being aware of them.
This avoids us being upset by them, but they can affect our behaviour. Evidence such as that produced
by Levinger and Clark (1961), who demonstrated experimentally that people recall fewer
____________________ word associations than neutral ones, suggests that defence mechanisms do
protect us from remembering unpleasant information. However, such studies are
____________________ compared to the traumatic events that people might repress in real life.
Worksheet
category
context
decay
displacement
eyewitnesses
fewer
limited
long
longer
E.Day/AS/PSYB2/ForgettingGSS
more
motivated
negative
number
permanent
primacy
proactive
recency
regularly
repression
retrieval failure
retroactive
short
time
unconscious
unrealistic
© Hodder Education 2008
35
PAST EXAM QUESTIONS ON EXPLANATIONS OF
FORGETTING
Remember to use the marks awarded for each question as an indication of how much you
should write.
(a) The following examples illustrate three different explanations of forgetting. In each
case, write in your answer book whether the example illustrates displacement,
interference or a lack of consolidation.
A Alison drove a left-hand drive car all the time she was in Spain. Because the car was
left-hand drive, the passenger and driver positions were the opposite to those in her
British car. When she came home, she kept going to open the passenger’s door instead of
the driver’s door.
B Ewan listed the ten things that he wanted me to buy him but, by the time he had
finished speaking, I had forgotten the first three or four.
C When Olwen recovered consciousness after her operation, she had forgotten all about
the magazine article which she had read just before the operation. (3 marks)
(b) Outline what is meant by displacement and state why it does not explain forgetting
from long-term memory. (3 marks)
(c) In an experiment on forgetting, one group of participants (Group A) was asked to
read a list of words carefully.
Immediately afterwards, a similar group of participants (Group B) came into the room.
Both groups were then asked to read a second list of words, similar to the first.
Next, both groups were given mental arithmetic problems to solve for ten minutes.
Finally, each participant was asked to write down as many words as he or she could
remember from the second list of words.
The results showed that Group B participants correctly recalled twice as many words as
Group A.
(i) Use your knowledge of psychology to explain why Group B performed better than
Group A. (4 marks)
(ii) Explain why the participants were asked to solve mental arithmetic problems before
their recall was tested. (2 marks)
(d) Waldek is 27 years old. He does not suffer from amnesia, but he has noticed that he
has forgotten many of the things he learned at school and college.
Describe and discuss at least two psychological explanations for Waldek’s forgetting of
previously learned material. (10 marks)( MINI-ESSAY QUESTION)
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AS PSYCHOLOGY : PSYB2 : FORGETTING
REVISION CHECKLIST
Moodle location: General education: AS,A2 and A3: A/S Cognitive Psychology
:Remembering and forgetting ( Blended Learning) Password: Craik
Explanations of forgetting from STM :
Decay
Research evidence/support for this explanation
Limitations of this explanation
Displacement
Research evidence/support for this explanation
Limitations of this explanation
Explanations of forgetting from LTM :
Interference
Research evidence/support for this explanation
Limitations of this explanation
Retrieval failure (absence of context/cues)
Research evidence/support for this explanation
Limitations of this explanation
Lack of consolidation
Research evidence/support for this explanation
Limitations of this explanation
Motivated forgetting, including repression
Research evidence/support for this explanation
Limitations of this explanation
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