memory and forgetting

• a Retrieval Cue is Any stimulus that assists the process of locating and recovering information stored in LTM. It acts as a prompt that guides the search and recovery process within memory.
• According to retrieval failure theory, we sometimes forget because we lack or fail to use the right cues to retrieve information stored in the LTM.

  This explanation of forgetting suggests that memories stored in the LTM are available and not actually forgotten, however the memories are temporarily inaccessible because of an inappropriate or faulty cue.
• A limitation of Retrieval Failure Theory is that it doesn’t explain forgetting due to anxiety related memories, brain trauma or memories that interfere with each other.
• interference theory proposes that forgetting in the LTM occurs because other memories interfere with retrieval of what we are trying to recover, particularly if the other memories are familiar.
• in interference theory, The more similar information is and the closer in time the information is learnt the more likely that interference will occur.
• retroactive interference is when new information interferes with the ability to remember old information.
• proactive interference is when information learnt previously can interfere with our ability to remember new information.
• motivated forgetting describes forgetting that arises from a strong motive or desire to forget, usually because the experience is too disturbing or upsetting to remember.
• repression: involves unconsciously blocking a memory of an event or experience from entering conscious awareness.
• suppression: involves being motivated to forget an event or experience by making a deliberate conscious effort to keep it out of conscious awareness.
• decay theory: forgetting occurs because the neural representation of a memory (memory trace) fades through disuse, unless it’s reactivated by being used occasionally.
• decay theory is the earliest theory of forgetting.
• 3 main measures are available for use by psychologists to assess how much information has been retained – recall, recognition, and re-learning.
• Recall: involves reproducing information stored in memory, whether or not a cue is used to assist retrieval process.
• Free recall: involves reproducing as much information as possible in no particular order.
• Serial recall: involves reproducing information in the order in which it was presented.
• Cued recall: involves the use of specific prompts/cues to aid retrieval and therefore reproduction of the required information.
• Recognition:

  involves identifying the correct information from among the alternatives. Sometimes there is incorrect information amongst the correct information.
• Re-learning: involves learning information again that has been previously learned and stored in the LTM.
• Study: Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving 1975)
• (Craik and Tulving)

   Aim: to investigate how deep and shallow processing affects memory recall
• (Craik and Tulving) Method:

  -       Participants were presented with a series of 60 words about which they had to answer one of three questions. Some questions required the participant to process the word in a deep way and others in a shallow way. For example:

  1.     Structural/visual processing: “is the word in capital letters?”

  2.     Phonemic/auditory processing: “does the word rhyme with …?”

  3.     Semantic processing: “does the word go in this sentence …?”

  -       Participants were then given a long list of 180 words which included the original 60 and asked to pick out the original words.
• (Craik and Tulving)

  Results/findings:

  -       Participants recalled more words that were semantically processed compared to phonetically and structurally processed words.
• (Craik and Tulving)

  Conclusion:

  -       Semantically processed words involve elaboration rehearsal and deep processing with results in more accurate recall. Phonemic and structurally processed words involve shallow processing and less accurate detail.
• (Craik and Tulving) Strengths:

  -       Craik and Tulving’s research supports Craik and Lockhart’s level of processing theory.

  -       This explanation of memory is useful in everyday life because it highlights the way in which elaboration, which requires deeper processing of information, can aid memory.
• (Craik and Tulving)

  Weaknesses/Limitations 1

  -       It does not explain how deeper processing results in better memories.

  -       Deeper processing takes more effort than shallow processing and it could be this, rather than the depth of processing that makes it more likely people will remember something.
• (Craik and Tulving) Weaknesses/Limitations 2

  -       The concept of depth is vague and cannot be observed. Therefore, it cannot be objectively measured.

  -       The experiment lacks ecological validity as only word recall is tested. In reality, structural and structural processing might be used to a higher degree if a person had been asked to recall a picture they had seen as well.
• (craik and tulving)

  real life applications:

  -       This explanation of memory is useful in everyday life because it highlights the way in which elaboration, which requires deeper processing of information, can aid memory. Three examples are:

  Reworking, Method of loci, Imagery

  -       These could all be used to study using semantic processing and should result in deeper processing through elaborative rehearsal.
• (craik and tulving) real life applications

  Method of loci: when trying to remember a list of items, linking each to a familiar place or route.
• (craik and tulving) real life applications

  Reworking: putting information in your own words or talking about it with someone else.
• (craik and tulving) real life applications

  Imagery: by creating an image of something you want to remember, you elaborate on it and encode it visually.
• Rehearsal: the process of consciously manipulating information to keep it in STM, to transfer it to LTM, or to aid storage and retrieval.
• Maintenance rehearsal: involves repeating the information being remembered over and over again so that it can be retained in STM (working memory).

  -       Involves simple repetition of words or auditory information (like sounds of words) and visual or spatial information (like images or mental maps)

  -       less effective at transferring information into LTM than elaborative.
• Elaborative rehearsal: the process of linking new information in a meaningful way with other new information or information already stored in the LTM to aid in its storage and retrieval from LTM.

  -       Mnemonics do same thing.

  -       More active and effortful than maintenance rehearsal and ensured information is encoded.