Forgetting

Forgetting

1. Cue-dependent encoding

   • Schwab, 1990 - Smell
     • better retrieval if the smell of the room was the same as at the time of learning
   • Godden & Baddeley, 1975 - On land vs. underwater
   • Language - Marian & Neisser, 2000
     • Tested bilingual prts (Russian and English. -remembered better russian-time memories when asked in Russian
   • State- dependent memory
     • if mood is the same as during recall & retrieval - better results
     • drugs - better retrieval under the influence of drugs if words are learned while high

2. Encoding specificity principle

   • Tulvig, 1979
   • we don't form an isolated form of info
     • success of retrieval is a function of overlap btw info encoded in memory & info present at retrieval

3. Transfer Appropriate Processing

   • Morris et al., 1977 Prts given a list of words and then presented with rhyme/semantic questions (recall 63% vs 83%) 
   • processing performed at time resembling that at the time of learning

4. Brain Regions

   • MTL (hippocampus)
     • - active during encoding -damage = impaired episodic memory - converging zone -retrieval = MTL activates the rest of the pattern
   • Frontal Lobe
     • - involved in attention and elaboration during encoding of episodic memory -active during retrieval -damage = retrieval deficit - role = elaborate on retrieval cues?

5. Repressing

   • Freud, 1915/1943
     • Williams, 1994 -40% of women hospitalized after abuse had repressed memories a few years later.
     • Recovered memories - genuine or not??
   • Direct forgetting , Myers, 1998

6. What causes forgetting?

   • Access failure
     • Tulvig & Psotka (1971)
       • They presented words in categories and asked people to remember the lists - remembered 70% - then they gave them 6 lists - recall is 30% lower for  
   • Decay
   • Interference
     • new info has interfered older lists