Forgetting
Chapter 8, Lecture 5
“A good memory is helpful, but so is the ability
to forget. If a memory-enhancing pill becomes
available, it had better not be too effective.”
- David Myers
Forgetting
An inability to retrieve information due
to poor encoding, storage, or retrieval.
Encoding Failure
We cannot remember what we do not encode.
Some common examples of encoding failure???
Storage Decay
Poor durability of stored memories leads to
their decay. Ebbinghaus showed this with his
forgetting curve.
Retaining Spanish
Bahrick (1984) showed a similar pattern of
forgetting and retaining over 50 years.
Retrieval Failure
Although the information is retained in the
memory store, it cannot be accessed.
Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure
phenomenon. Given a cue (What makes
blood cells red?) the subject says the word
begins with an H (hemoglobin).
Proactive Interference
Learning some new information may disrupt
retrieval of other information (proactive interference)
Retroactive Interference
Sleep prevents retroactive interference. Therefore, it
leads to better recall.
Confusing Terms – Answer in
your journal:
Suppose that one night you spend an hour studying
Latin, then an hour studying English. In being tested
the next day, how would (a) retroactive interference and
(b) proactive interference come about in this example?
If tested on Latin the next day, the English would
retroactively interfere with your Latin retrieval.
If tested on English the next day, the Latin would
proactively interfere with your English retrieval.
Motivated Forgetting
Motivated Forgetting:
People unknowingly
revise their memories.
Culver Pictures
Repression: A defense
mechanism that banishes
anxiety-arousing
thoughts, feelings, and
memories from
consciousness.
Sigmund Freud
Why do we forget?
Forgetting can occur at
any memory stage. We
filter, alter, or lose
much information
during these stages.
p.355
Homework
Read p.356-364
“…increasing numbers of memory researchers
think repression rarely, if ever, occurs… we
may have intrusive memories of the very
traumatic experiences we would most like to
forget.”
- David Myers