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Forgetting: the loss of information over time.
•People tend to remember better soon after learning it than
after a long delay—over time we begin to forget.
•We are often annoyned when we can not remember
something, but sometimes forgetting can be useful.
Example: When we move we get a new telephone number,
we need to forget the old one and learn the new one.
“So what’s
your new
phone #?”
“ it’s 345-7765
no wait , it’s
345- 9807”
German philosopher Herman Ebbinghaus
initiated a scientific study of human memory
in experiments that he began in 1879. He
developed a way to measure forgetting by
doing the following:
•To avoid the influence of familiar material he created dozens
of lists of nonsense syllables
•He would learn a list by repeating the items over and over,
until he could recite the list w/o error.
•He would note how many trials or how long it took him to
learn the list.
•He then tested his memory of the list after an interval ranging
from 20 min. to 31 days.
•He measured how much he had forgotten by the amount of
time or the # of trials it took him to relearn the list.
Results
By conducting this experiment with
many lists, he found that the rate of
forgetting was relatively consistent.
Forgetting occurred rapidly at first and
then seemed to level off.
Levels off
Rapid rate of
forgetting
Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve illustrates the loss of information from long-term
memory.
Decay Theory
•Oldest idea about forgetting
•Memory traces are formed in the brain when we
learn information, and they gradually
disintegrate over time.
Problems with the Decay Theory
1. Does not provide an explanation for forgetting,
but merely a description.
2. The phenomenon of reminiscence; the fact that
sometimes memories actually recover over
time.
3. Many researches today have replaced the
decay theory with the Interference Theory of
Forgetting.
Interference Theory of Forgetting
According to many psychologist, forgetting occurs because
of interference from other information or activities over
time.
Two types of Interference:
•Proactive interference: occurs when prior learning or
experiences interferes with our ability to recall new
information.
Example: the fact that you took French last year interferes with
you learning Spanish this year.
•Retroactive interference: occurs when new information
interferes with our ability to recall old information or
experiences.
Example: try remembering what you had for lunch five days ago, the
lunches you had in the intervening days will probably interfere with
your ability to remember
try to remember this mnemonic device: P.O.R.N.
P(stands for proactive) O ( old interferes with new)
R(stands for retroactive N (new interferes with old
Repression
Refers to the forgetting of an unpleasant event or
piece of information due to its threatening quality.
•Introduced by Sigmund Freud, according to Freud
people banish unpleasant events into their
unconscious mind.
Examples: forgetting a dentist appointment or
being sexually abused as a child.
Encoding Failure Theory
Not encoding or paying attention to
details
Can you identify the real penny?
Retrieval Failure Theory
Memories stored in Long term memory aren’t
forgotten. They are just momentarily inaccessible as a
result of things like interference, faulty cues or
emotional state.
One of the most common is the:
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon