Transcript Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement

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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
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Forgetting is the flip side of memory.
Forgetting can occur at any one of the three stages
Long-term memory holds large amounts of
information and the material is represented in an
abstract form
› Forgetting and other memory errors can occur
› New information can become mixed with
material you already know
› Old learning can interfere with new learning
 Studying similar foreign languages for example
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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
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Nonsense Syllables: meaningless sets of two
consonants with a vowel in the middle used
by psychologists to measure basic memory
tasks
› Recognition
› Recall
› Relearning
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Because nonsense syllables are meaningless,
remembering them depends on acoustic
coding (saying them out loud or in your mind)
and mechanical repetition (maintenance
rehearsal)
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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
Recognition: identifying objects or events that
have been encountered before
› Easiest of the memory tasks
 Example: multiple choice tests
 The ability of people to recognize familiar
faces is much stronger than the ability to
recall names
 Recall: to bring a memory back to mind
› It must be reconstructed in your mind
› Ability to recall is very high immediately
after learning, but the ability to recall
drops within an hour
 After the first hour, memory loss becomes
more gradual
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FIGURE 7.11 Some of the distractor items used in a study of recognition memory and encoding
failure. Penny A is correct but was seldom recognized. Pennies G and J were popular wrong
answers.
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Relearning: With some study and effort we can usually
relearn fairly rapidly things we once knew but have
forgotten
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Car
Flower
Desk
Key
Video
Carpet
Magnet
Radio
Ice
Peanut
Bench
Clock
Briefcase
Envelope
Nail
Recall as many words as you can:
Recognition:
Which words were in the list:
Car
Flower
Table
Envelope
Nail
Apple
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Most of the time, forgetting is due to
interference or decay—the fading away of
memory
› Both are part of normal forgetting
› They occur when memory traces fade
from sensory or short-term memory
› Also occurs in long-term memory when
something that has been stored there
cannot be retrieved
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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
Extreme forms of forgetting
 Repression:
forgetting things by pushing them out
of our consciousness
› According to Freud, we sometimes forget
things on purpose without even knowing we
are doing it
› Some memories are so painful and
unpleasant that they make us feel anxiety,
guilt, or shame
› We repress feelings to protect ourselves
› Very controversial topic among
contemporary psychologists
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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
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Amnesia: severe memory loss caused by
brain injury, shock, fatigue, illness, or
repression
› Dissociative amnesia is thought to
be caused by psychological
trauma (an extremely upsetting
experience or series of
experiences)
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Infantile Amnesia: forgetting early events that
occur before age three
› People who think they remember
their birth have probably
constructed the memory from other
memories
 Remembering what they were told
by parents
 The birth of another sibling
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 Freud explained it in terms of repression
 Young children often have aggressive
and sexual feelings toward their parents
but they forget these feelings as they get
older
 More likely biological and cognitive
factors
 The part of the brain involved in the
storage of memories (hippocampus)
does not become mature until we are
about 2
 Brain pathways are incomplete for the
first few years so memory formation is
inefficient
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Cognitive reasons for infantile amnesia:
› Infants are not interested in remembering
the past
› They don’t weave episodes together into
meaningful stories like older children and
adults
› They don’t have the language to
symbolize or classify events
 Ability to encode sensory input is limited
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Infantile amnesia refers to memory of specific
events (episodic memory)
› We remember many things using
semantic and implicit memory
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Anterograde Amnesia: memory loss from trauma that
prevents a person from forming new
memories
› Trauma to the brain caused by a blow to
the head, electric shock, or brain surgery
› Damage to the hippocampus
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Retrograde Amnesia: People forget the period
leading up to a traumatic event
› Accidents
› Severe cases can cause many years of
memory loss
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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
IMPROVING MEMORY
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Drill and Practice – doing something over and over
again (repetition)
› How we learn most basic information
› Using flashcards to drill yourself to make
a connection between two items
› Using a person’s name right away when
you first meet them helps to remember
them late
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Section 4: Forgetting and Memory Improvement
IMPROVING MEMORY
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Relating to Things You Already Know – (elaborative
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Forming Unusual Associations – making an unusual or
rehearsal)
humorous association with something else to
help you recall the information
 Constructing Links – constructing a meaningful link
between items
 Using Mnemonic Devices – systems for remembering
information
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