forgetting

• Forgetting


  problems with:

  availability

  accessibility

  interference
• Short-term memory - availability problem


  • short-term memory can decay (fade) or be displaced (pushed out) due to limited duration and capacity.
• Long-term memory - accessibility/interference problem


  Forgetting information can be down to:

  • Accessibility - information that was once stored is difficult to retrieve.
  • Interference - memory is inaccessible because of old or new information blocking retrieval.
• Interference


  Interference happens when some information in our memory is inaccessible because of old or new information blocking retrieval.
• Interference types:


  retroactive: new impacts old

  proactive: old impacts new
• Cue-Dependent Forgetting


  • effective recall depends on retrieval cues like labels on the files in a filing system.
  • CDF happens when information in long-term memory can’t be accessed.
• Tulving - Encoding Specificity Principle


  There are two forms of cue-dependent forgetting: context dependent failure and state-dependent failure.

  • Context-dependent failure happens with external retrieval cues referring to the environment.
  • State-dependent failure happens with internal retrieval cues referring to the person rather than the environment.
• Abernathy (1940) - familiarity to teachers and enviro


  • students performed worse on a test when tested by an unfamiliar teacher in unfamiliar surroundings than when a familiar teacher tested them in familiar surroundings.
• • Godden and Baddeley (1975) - divers
  • when divers learnt material underwater, they recalled the information better when tested underwater than when on dry land.
• Overton (1972) - drunk or sober.


  • Recall was found to be more difficult if the state in which the learner learnt the material differed from that in which it was tested.
  • eg. pps performed better on a test when drunk if they had learned the material whilst drunk.
• Darley et al. (1973) - marijuana + money


  • pps hide money whilst under the influence of marijuana.
  • pps better at remembering where they hid the money if under the influence of the drug.
• Baddley - CDF not stong enough


  Environments are not drastically different in real life like te drivers study so cannot explain everyday forgetting
• Godden and Baddley - Recall vs Recognition


  replicated their diver study but with recognition recall (recognising a word read to them)

  There was no difference in each condition
• Eysenck

  retrieval failure may be one of the main reasons that we forget information from the LTM.