FORGETTING Inability to retrieve information previously stored in LTM.
Retrieval and Forgetting AP Psychology. Forgetting An inability to retrieve information due to poor...
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Transcript of Retrieval and Forgetting AP Psychology. Forgetting An inability to retrieve information due to poor...
Retrieval and Forgetting
AP Psychology
Forgetting
An inability to retrieve information due to poor encoding, storage, or
retrieval.• Biological Reasons• Experience Factors
Biological Factors• Damage to the Hippocampus
– Difficulty forming new memories– Diminished in Alzheimer’s patients
• Neurotransmitters play a role– Acetylcholine – Alzheimer’s patients show low levels of this
• Decay theory– Memories deteriorate because of the passage of time– Distractor Studies – information fades from STM
Decay Theory
Poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay. Ebbinghaus
showed this with his forgetting curve.
Retaining SpanishBahrick (1984) showed a similar pattern of
forgetting and retaining over 50 years.
Andrew
Holbrooke/ C
orbis
Biology Continued - Amnesia
• Memory loss caused by accidents, surgery, poor diet, or disease
• Retrograde amnesia– Loss of memory from prior to an accident or
injury– Like a computer crashing without saving your
essay.
Retrieval FailureAlthough 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).
Experiences can affect Memory
• Interference• Retroactive interference
– Occurs when new information interferes with information already in memory
– The ‘retro’ old info is interfered with by the new
Retroactive Interference
Sleep prevents retroactive interference. Therefore, itleads to better recall.
Interference
• Proactive interference– Occurs when information already in memory interferes
with new information– Because of proactive interference, new
learning is disrupted by old habits. – Psychologists have found that recall of later
items can be improved by making them distinctive from early items. For example, people being fed groups of numbers to remember did much better when they were suddenly fed a group of words instead. This is called release from proactive interference
InterferenceLearning some new information may disrupt
retrieval of other information.
I need a volunteer that knows their colors.
• Don’t read the words, just say the colors they’re printed in and as fast as you can
RedYellowGreen BlueRedBlue
YellowGreenBlueRed
Interference• When you look at the words you see both
its color and meaning.• When they are in conflict you must make
a choice• Experience has taught you that word
meaning is more important than color so you retrieve that information.
• You are not always in complete control of what you pay attention to.
Interference
Experience and Forgetting
• Situational factors– Recall of information is better if environment is the
same as when information was learned• State-dependent memory
– Recall of information is better if person is in the same physiological state as when information was learned
• Reconstruction– Memories can be altered with each retrieval– We do this to keep the schemata of our self and our
environment
Context Effects
Scuba divers recall more words underwater if they learned the list underwater, while
they recall more words on land if they learned that list on land (Godden &
Baddeley, 1975).
Fred McC
onnaughey/ Photo Researchers
How to Reduce Forgetting
• Develop motivation• Practice memory skills• Be confident in your
ability to remember• Minimize distractions• Stay focused
• Make meaningful connections to what is in long-term memory
• Use mental imagery• Use retrieval cues• Rely on more than
memory alone• Be aware of possible
distortion due to schemata
Some “forgetting” isn’t a retrieval problem at all.
Encoding FailureWe cannot remember what we do not
encode.
Which penny is real?
Motivated ForgettingMotivated Forgetting: People unknowingly revise their memories.
Repression: A defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.
Sigmund Freud
Culver Pictures
Why do we forget?
Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. We filter, alter, or lose
much information during these stages.