Retrieval and Forgetting

AP Psychology

Forgetting

An inability to retrieve information due to poor encoding, storage, or

retrieval.• Biological Reasons• Experience Factors

Biological Factors• Damage to the Hippocampus

– Difficulty forming new memories– Diminished in Alzheimer’s patients

• Neurotransmitters play a role– Acetylcholine – Alzheimer’s patients show low levels of this

• Decay theory– Memories deteriorate because of the passage of time– Distractor Studies – information fades from STM

Decay Theory

Poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay. Ebbinghaus

showed this with his forgetting curve.

Retaining SpanishBahrick (1984) showed a similar pattern of

forgetting and retaining over 50 years.

Andrew

Holbrooke/ C

orbis

Biology Continued - Amnesia

• Memory loss caused by accidents, surgery, poor diet, or disease

• Retrograde amnesia– Loss of memory from prior to an accident or

injury– Like a computer crashing without saving your

essay.

Retrieval FailureAlthough the information is retained in the

memory store, it cannot be accessed.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a retrieval failure phenomenon. Given a cue (What makes blood cells red?) the subject says the word begins

with an H (hemoglobin).

Experiences can affect Memory

• Interference• Retroactive interference

– Occurs when new information interferes with information already in memory

– The ‘retro’ old info is interfered with by the new

Retroactive Interference

Sleep prevents retroactive interference. Therefore, itleads to better recall.

Interference

• Proactive interference– Occurs when information already in memory interferes

with new information– Because of proactive interference, new

learning is disrupted by old habits. – Psychologists have found that recall of later

items can be improved by making them distinctive from early items. For example, people being fed groups of numbers to remember did much better when they were suddenly fed a group of words instead. This is called release from proactive interference

InterferenceLearning some new information may disrupt

retrieval of other information.

I need a volunteer that knows their colors.

• Don’t read the words, just say the colors they’re printed in and as fast as you can

RedYellowGreen BlueRedBlue

YellowGreenBlueRed

Interference• When you look at the words you see both

its color and meaning.• When they are in conflict you must make

a choice• Experience has taught you that word

meaning is more important than color so you retrieve that information.

• You are not always in complete control of what you pay attention to.

Interference

Experience and Forgetting

• Situational factors– Recall of information is better if environment is the

same as when information was learned• State-dependent memory

– Recall of information is better if person is in the same physiological state as when information was learned

• Reconstruction– Memories can be altered with each retrieval– We do this to keep the schemata of our self and our

environment

Context Effects

Scuba divers recall more words underwater if they learned the list underwater, while

they recall more words on land if they learned that list on land (Godden &

Baddeley, 1975).

Fred McC

onnaughey/ Photo Researchers

How to Reduce Forgetting

• Develop motivation• Practice memory skills• Be confident in your

ability to remember• Minimize distractions• Stay focused

• Make meaningful connections to what is in long-term memory

• Use mental imagery• Use retrieval cues• Rely on more than

memory alone• Be aware of possible

distortion due to schemata

Some “forgetting” isn’t a retrieval problem at all.

Encoding FailureWe cannot remember what we do not

encode.

Which penny is real?

Motivated ForgettingMotivated Forgetting: People unknowingly revise their memories.

Repression: A defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.

Sigmund Freud

Culver Pictures

Why do we forget?

Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. We filter, alter, or lose

much information during these stages.