Forgetting

Forgetting

1. Refers to the inability to retrieve previously stored information

2. The forgetting curve (Herman Ebbinghaus) - measures the amount (quantity) and rate (speed) of forgetting.

   • The more meaningful the information is, the slower the rate of forgetting.

3. Measures of Retention

   • The sensitivity of the measure of retention refers to the ease of access to a memory
     • The 3 Measures of retention
       • Recall
         • A measure of retention that requires a person to retrieve and reproduce info with the fewest possible cues. - least sensitive
           • 3 Types of Recall
             • Free Recall
               • reproducing info in any order
             • Serial Recall
               • Reproducing info in the order it was presented
             • Cued Recall
               • makes use of specific cues to assist the retrieval
       • Recognition
         • A measure of retention that involves identifying the correct info from among alternatives - middle sensitive
       • Relearning
         • Refers to learning again something that has previously been committed to memory - most sensitive

4. Savings Score

   • (Time for original Learning) - (time for relearning) X 100 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Time for original learning)

5. Psychological Theories of Forgetting

   • 1) Retrieval Failure
     • Suggests that memories are not generally lost, but rather that lack of right cues or failure to use them
     • A retrieval cue is any stimulus that assists the process of locating and recovering information stored in LTM
     • Criticisms
       • Does not explain why we fail to remember some items but not others
       • Can be a circular argument-hard to disprove or falsify
   • 2) Interference
     • Proposes forgetting in our LTM occurs due to presence of other memories which interfere with what we are trying to recall
       • 2 Types of Interference
         • Retroactive
           • New information interfering with the old
         • Proactive
           • Old information interfering with the new
     • Critcisms
       • It does not explain all the types of forgetting, eg. Tip-of-the-tongue
   • 3) Motivated forgetting
   • 4) Decay

6. Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon; is being aware of knowing something, but not being able to retrieve the information at the particular time.

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