EXPLORING
PSYCHOLOGY
EIGHTH EDITION IN MODULES
David Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University
Worth Publishers, © 2011
Memory
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Forgetting, Memory
Construction, and Improving
Memory
Module 21
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Forgetting
 Encoding Failure
 Storage Decay
 Retrieval Failure
 CLOSE –UP: Retrieving
Passwords
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Memory Construction
 Misinformation and Imagination
Effects
 Source Amnesia
 Children’s Eyewitness Recall
 Repressed or Constructed Memories of
Abuse?
Improving Memory
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Forgetting
An inability to retrieve information due to
poor encoding, storage, or retrieval.
Being able to forget information that is no
longer useful is certainly a blessing.
However, being unable to remember
information we need can be frustrating and
annoying.
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Encoding Failure
We cannot remember what we do not
encode.
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Storage Decay
Poor durability of stored memories leads to
their decay. Ebbinghaus showed this with
his forgetting curve.
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Retrieval Failure
Although the information is retained in the
memory store, it cannot be accessed.
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Interference
Learning some new information may disrupt
retrieval of other information.
Proactive interference occurs when something
you learned earlier disrupts your recall of
something you experience later.
Retroactive interference occurs when learning
something new makes it harder to recall
something you learned earlier.
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Retroactive Interference
Sleep helps prevent retroactive interference because it
minimizes the chance for interfering events.
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Close-Up: Retrieving Passwords
Most of us have many passwords to remember (email, work, bank,
etc). As a result we encounter proactive interference from
irrelevant old information and retroactive interference from other
newly learned information.
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Motivated Forgetting
Freud argued that our memories self-censor,
proposing that we repress painful memories to
protect our self - concept and to minimize anxiety.
He believed that these memories lingered to be
later retrieved by some cue or by therapy.
However, increasing numbers of memory
researchers believe that repression rarely, if ever,
occurs.
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When Do We Forget?
Forgetting can occur at
any memory stage. We
filter, alter, or lose
much information
during these stages.
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Memory Construction
While tapping our memories, we filter or fill in
missing pieces of information to make our
recall more coherent.
We don’t just retrieve our memories, we
reweave them, incorporating information we
imagined, expected, saw, and heard after the
event.
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Misinformation and Imagination
Effects
The misinformation effect is incorporating misleading
information into the memory of an event. Eyewitnesses
reconstruct their memories when questioned about the event.
When people who had seen the film of a car accident were
later asked a leading question, they recalled a more serious
accident than they had witnessed. (From Loftus, 1979.)
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Source Amnesia
Source amnesia, also called source misattribution,
is the attribution of an event to the wrong source
that we experienced, heard, read, or imagined
(misattribution).
Source amnesia, along with the misinformation
effect, is at the heart of many false memories.
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Children’s Eyewitness Recall
Children’s eyewitness recall can be unreliable if
leading questions are posed. However, if
cognitive interviews are neutrally worded, the
accuracy of their recall increases. In cases of
sexual abuse, this usually suggests a lower
percentage of abuse.
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Repressed or Constructed
Memories of Abuse
There are two tragedies involved in adult recollections of
childhood abuse – disbelief of those who come forward, and
falsely accusing the innocent.
Those committed to protecting abused children and those
committed to protecting wrongly accused adults agree that:
-Sexual abuse happens
-Injustice happens
-Forgetting happens
-Recovered memories are commonplace
-Memories of things happening before age 3 are not reliable
-Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or the influence of
drugs are especially unreliable
-Memories, whether true or false, can be upsetting
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Improving Memory
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•
•
•
Study repeatedly to boost long-term recall.
Make material personally meaningful.
Activate retrieval cues
Use mnemonic devices:
–
–
–
associate with peg words — something already
stored
make up a story
chunk — acronyms
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Improving Memory
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Minimize interference:
–
–
Test your own knowledge.
Rehearse and then determine what you do not
yet know.
• Sleep more
© LWA-Dann Tardiff/ Corbis
• Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it
and to help determine what you do not yet
know.
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