Transcript Forgetting - DocuShare

Forgetting and Memory
Construction
AP PSYCH
278-284
285-293
Is Forgetting Necessary?
• It has been theorized that if we did not forget
things our brains would become cluttered
with irrelevant memories.
• Superior Autobiographical Memory subjects
have recently brought controversy to this
theory.
• Never forgetting can be exhausting and
emotionally painful.
Encoding Failure
• Much of what we sense we never notice and
fail to encode, meaning that we can not
remember that information.
• Without effort many memories never form.
Clive Wearing
Age and Encoding
• Age can affect encoding
– Areas in the brain that are active when young
people encode new information are less
responsive in older adults.
Forgetting and Storage
• You do not store everything you learn…you
disregard some information over time.
• Forgetting occurs rapidly and then levels off
with time.
Retrieval Failure
• Sometimes even stored
information can not be
accessed or retrieved.
• One reason for
retrieval failure could
be interference.
– Learning new
information can
interfere with previous
learning especially if the
items are similar.
Proactive Interference
• The disruptive effect of prior learning on the
recall of new information.
– You buy a new lock for your locker and the
previous combination interferers with your ability
to learn the new combination.
Retroactive Interference
• The disruptive effect of new learning on the
recall of old information.
– You buy a new lock for your locker and the new
combination interferers with your ability to
remember the old combination.
Sleep and Interference
• Information presented one hour before sleep
is protected from retroactive interference
because the opportunity for interfering events
is minimized.
Motivated Forgetting
• Repressed Memories
– Developed by Freud
– The basic defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings,
and memories.
– Freud believed these memories could be retrieved
and accessed through therapy.
– There is more and more research that shows that
repression rarely if ever occurs.
Memory Construction
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Rest
Night
Quilt
Quiet
Toss
Night
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Turn
Relax
Dark
Artichoke
Moon
Dream
Memory Construction
• Write down as many words as they you
remember.
• Raise their hand if you recalled the following
words:
– Rest
– Night
– Artichoke
– Dream
– Sleep
Memory Construction
• Misinformation Effect = incorporating misleading
information into one’s memory of an event causing
them to remember.
• Shows how eyewitnesses similarly reconstruct
their memories when later questioned.
– How fast were the cars going when they smashed
into each other?
– How fast were the cars going when they hit each
other?
Misinformation Effect
• Repeatedly Imagining (Photo shopped images)
– Can create false memories.
– Happens because visualizing something and
actually perceiving it activate similar brain areas.
– The “floating table”
Bugs Bunny Effect
How Bad is Eyewitness Testimony
How Bad is Eyewitness Testimony
Children’s Eyewitness Recall
• Children are even more susceptible to the
misinformation effect than adults.
– They truly believe their stories even after they are
told they are false memories.
– Professional psychologist trained in interviewing
children could not even tell if the children were
talking about a real memory or a false one.
Source Amnesia
• Source Amnesia = attributing to the wrong
source an event we have experienced,
heard about, read about, or imagined.
(Also called source misattribution.)
– Source amnesia, along with the
misinformation effect, is at the heart of many
false memories.
Abuse and Repressed or Constructed
Memories
• Memories recovered under hypnosis or under
the influence of drugs are especially
unreliable.
• Memories of things happening before age 3
are unreliable. (Infantile Amnesia)
• Traumatic events are usually not repressed the
are very vivid, persistent, haunting memories.