Module 27
Forgetting, Memory
Construction, and
Improving Memory
Inattentional Blindness
We only notice what we attend to:
Visual Cognition Lab
Forgetting
 Forgetting as encoding failure
 Information never enters long-term
memory
Attention
External
events
Short- Encoding
Sensory
term
memory Encoding
memory
Encoding
failure leads
to forgetting
Longterm
memory
Forgetting
Penny Activity
Forgetting
 Forgetting as
encoding failure
 Which penny is the
real thing?
Forgetting
Percentage of
list retained
when
relearning
 Ebbinghaus
forgetting
curve over
30 days-initially
rapid, then
levels off
with time
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
12345
10
15
20
25
Time in days since learning list
30
Retrieval
 Forgetting can result from failure to
retrieve information from long-term
memory
Attention
External
events
Sensory
memory
Encoding
Encoding
Short-term
Long-term
memory
Retrieval memory
Retrieval failure
leads to forgetting
Retrieval
T-O-T = Capital Cities
Forgetting as
Interference
 Learning some items may disrupt
retrieval of other information
 Proactive (forward acting) Interference
 disruptive effect of prior learning on recall
of new information
 Retroactive (backwards acting)
Interference
 disruptive effect of new learning on recall of
old information
In this demonstration, you’ll see three words
at a time. Try to remember the three words.
After you see the three words, you’ll see a 3digit number.
Count backwards, by 3’s from this number
until you see the instructions to “WRITE
DOWN THE WORDS” fifteen seconds later.
Let’s practice counting backwards by 3’s
from the number 99 before we begin.
CAT ELEPHANT COW
368
WRITE DOWN THE WORDS
ZEBRA HORSE LION
576
WRITE DOWN THE WORDS
PIG DOG TIGER
862
WRITE DOWN THE WORDS
BULL LEOPARD BIRD
549
WRITE DOWN THE WORDS
DOCTOR BARBER LAWYER
748
WRITE DOWN THE WORDS
WHAT WERE THE WORDS ON THE
FIRST LIST YOU SAW?
WHAT WERE THE WORDS ON THE
SECOND LIST YOU SAW?
List 1: CAT ELEPHANT COW
List 2: ZEBRA HORSE LION
List 3: PIG DOG TIGER
List 4: BULL LEOPARD BIRD
List 5: DOCTOR BARBER LAWYER
Forgetting as
Interference
Forgetting
 Forgetting can
occur at any
memory stage
 As we process
information,
we filter, alter,
or lose much
of it
ForgettingInterference
 Motivated Forgetting
 people unknowingly revise memories
 Repression
 defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts,
feelings, and memories
Memory Construction
 We filter information and fill in
missing pieces
 Misinformation Effect
 incorporating misleading information into
one's memory of an event
 Source Amnesia
 attributing to the wrong source an event
that we experienced, heard about, read
about, or imagined (misattribution)
 Was it a dream or real?
Memory Construction
Depiction of actual accident
 Eyewitnesses
reconstruct
memories when
questioned
Leading question:
“About how fast were the cars
going when they smashed into
each other?”
Memory
construction
Memory Construction
Book Example
Memory Construction
Source Amnesia is linked with  Memories of Abuse
 Repressed or Constructed?
 Child sexual abuse does occur
 Some adults do actually forget such episodes
 False Memory Syndrome
 condition in which a person’s identity and
relationships center around a false but strongly
believed memory of traumatic experience
 sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
Memory Construction
Piaget’s Story
Creating False Memories
 Schemas sometimes drive memories
Memory Construction
Eyewitness Identification / Recall –
60 Minutes – Picking Cotton (Part I), Bunny Effect
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/06/60m
inutes/main4848039.shtml
60 Minutes – Part II (line ups and identification)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4V6aoYuDcg
https://www.psychology.iastate.edu/~glwells/thee
yewitnesstest.html
Infantile Amnesia
 Most don’t remember much prior to 4th
birthday
 Competing hypotheses as to why:
 Decay
 Freudian argument of regression
 Intellectual development
 Schematic framework is different
 State/context dependent learning
 Remember difference between semantic
and episodic memory
Memory Construction
 Most people can agree on the following:
Injustice happens
Incest happens
Forgetting happens
Recovered memories are commonplace
Memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs
are especially unreliable
 Memories of things happening before age 3
are unreliable
 Memories, whether false or real, are upsetting
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Improve Your Memory
 Study repeatedly to boost recall
 Spend more time rehearsing or
actively thinking about the material
 Make material personally meaningful
 Use mnemonic devices
 associate with peg words--something
already stored
 make up story
 chunk--acronyms
Improve Your Memory
Cognition Demos
Improve Your Memory
 Activate retrieval cues--mentally
recreate situation and mood
 Recall events while they are fresh-before you encounter misinformation
 Minimize interference
 Test your own knowledge
 rehearse
 determine what you do not yet
know