Forgetting Sarah Marshal Starter: What theme do the following all share? Forgetting Sarah Marshal Poor memory Forgot something Forgot! Mr. Forgetful

Explanations for forgetting

Lesson outcomes: By the end of todays lesson you should: Understand what forgetting is Be able to explain the ways in which forgetting can occur

What is forgetting? To forget is the failure to retrieve information

This can occur through interference… What is interference When information is stored however it cannot be accessed The process of interference When one memory blocks another memory This causes one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten

Interference theory (IT) Used as an explanation for forgetting mainly in LTM It perceives forgetting as a direct result of information in the LTM being confused with other information during the coding stages This leads to inaccurate recall There are two forms of interference: proactive and retroactive

Proactive interference This occurs forwards in time (from old to new) Forgetting occurs when old memories disrupt the recall of new memories For example; the memory of your old phone number disrupts your attempts to learn your new phone number Real life example: You call your new partner by your old partners name

Retroactive interference Works backwards in time (from new to old) Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories For example, your teacher has learned so many names this year she has difficulty remembering the names of students last year

Activity 1: I would like you to write in your own words what proactive and retroactive interference is and your own example

Interference Prince Light Sock Bench Child Moon Carrot Bird Door Knife List 1 Is typically researched by getting participants to learn two lists of word pairs where the first word of each word pair is the same in both lists After the lists have been memorised participants are given the first word of a pair and asked to recall which word goes with it When proactive interference occurs, participants recall the first list of words When retroactive interference occurs, participants recall the second list of word pairs Prince Record Sock Letter Child Gravel Carrot Shirt Door Pudding List 2

What is a limitation of the interference theory? Do we normally learn and remember information like this in real life? No The studies which support the theory can be used of lacking mundane realism

In an attempt to overcome the use of artificial laboratory conditions which lack relevance to real life Henk Schmidt et al. (2000) Conducted a study testing for interference in a real-life setting by using childhood memories of street names

When new information disrupts old information Henk Schmidt et al. (2000) Aim: to assess the influence of retroactive interference upon the memory of street names learned during childhood Procedure: 700 randomly selected former students of Dutch elementary school were sent questionnaire 211 responded aged between 11-79 Each were given a map of the area they attended school with all 48 street names replaced with numbers Participants were asked to recall as many of them as possible What is the RM issue with this?

Questionnaires were provided to participants to see how many times they moved house, where they moved to and for how long, how often they visited the area in question The amount of retroactive interference experienced was assessed by the number of times individuals moved

Supporting evidence for interference theory: Baddeley & Hitch (1977) (p78) Abel & Bauml (2013)(p78) Findings: Positive association between number of times moved outside area in question and the number of street names forgotten As the number of times moved increased, so too did the number of names forgotten Conclusions: learning new patterns of street names when moving house makes recalling older patterns of street names harder Explains retroactive interference in a real life scenario

Research into interference tends to use laboratory experiments based around artificial tasks, such as learning lists of word pairs This can be accused of lacking mundane realism Although studies show interference to be a real effect, they do not clearly identify the cognitive processes at work There is more research support for cue dependent forgetting…

Cue-dependent forgetting (CDF) When information is in the LTM however it cannot be accessed Recall is dependent on retrieval cues – like the labels on files in a filing system Recall is dependent upon accessing information by remembering the retrieval cue under which the information is stored Tulving (1973) explained this as the encoding-specifity principle

Encoding-specifity principle This is where recall is hindered if the context of recall is different to that at coding The effectiveness of a retrieval cue depends on… how overloaded it is (the fewer the number of items associated with it, the more effective the cue) How deep the processing the cue was How well the cue fits the information associated

There are two main forms of CDF: Context dependent failure State dependent failure

Type one: context-dependent failure This occurs with external retrieval cues Forgetting occurs when the external environment is different at recall from how it was at coding For example: getting fewer marks in a test in a room you are unfamiliar with, than when sitting a test in your normal classroom Godden & Baddeley (1975) found recall of information worse when it occurred in a different context to the coding, than similar Material learned underwater was better recalled underwater Material learned on dry land was better recalled on dry land This supports the context dependent failure explanation

Type two: state-dependent failure How might Overton’s 1972 study be considered unethical? This occurs with internal retrieval cues Forgetting occurs when an individuals internal environment is dissimilar at recall to when information was encoded Overton (1972) participants learned material when either drunk or sober Found the recall was worse when ppts were in different internal state than internal state at coding This means, information learned when drunk was better recalled when drunk than sober This supports state dependent failure explanation of forgetting

Activity 2 In pairs, one person selects either context or state dependent forgetting You will write an example of the cue dependent forgetting you have selected Once you have done so, you will read it to your partner who will have to guess which cue dependent forgetting you have selected, and write a definition for it without using terms ‘context’ or ‘state’ Upon completion, your partner will then provide an example for the other cue dependent forgetting, which you will then write a definition for it in your own words

Real life application of cue-dependent forgetting Practical use carried out by the police Reconstructions of unsolved crimes This aims to jog the memory of the witness by recreating the context of the incident through the use of retrieval cues This may include the participants wearing identical clothing, the reconstruction taking place in the same location or same timescale as the original

Real life application of cue-dependent forgetting In 2001, Danielle Jones was murdered in Essex Her uncle was convicted of the crime, largely based around the witness statement which emerged after the reconstruction of the crime Witnesses recalled seeing Danielle argue with a man and getting into a blue transitvan – a vehicle owned by her uncle

Another type of forgetting is repression Repression is motivated forgetting where emotionally threatening events are thought to be banished into the unconscious mind, to prevent anxiety Repressed memories may affect conscious thoughts, desires and actions however they are difficult to retrieve

Williams (1994) Investigated repression in women who suffered childhood sexual assaults 38% had no recall 16% of those who did reported at one point they could not recall it What are problems with this?

It may be possible some women do remember being abused, but choose to pretend not to remember it as they didn’t wish to discuss it It also may be that some individuals did not have a memory of the abuse because simply it did not happen This brings up the idea of false memories being formulated through leading or misleading questions

Expanding our knowledge prep! Go to page 81(chapter 2.4) in the black mask In pairs Person 1: makes notes on trace decay Person 2: makes notes on displacement theory You will teach each other what you have learned about your topic area and make notes of what you have learned from your partner What TD or DT is? What are the two studies? What did they find? Evaluate TD or DT?

Plenary: You will each be given a piece of paper You must find your match! Note: There may be multiple matches in some instances