1. Unit 4: Memory
5.4.16

2. Entry Task Remember your list of veggies, fruits, & teachers?
Pleasant items are usually remembered earlier than unpleasant ones
p.19

3. Part 6
Forgetting

4. Forgetting
Forgetting: an inability to retrieve information due to poor encoding, storage, or retrieval. 4

5. Encoding Failure We cannot remember what we do not encode.
Because the info never enters long-term storage 5

6. Which penny is real?
There are 8 critical features to the head of a penny, most people remember only 3
The details of the penny are not very meaningful and few of us have made the effort to encode them. We encode some information automatically, other types of info require effortful processing. Without effort, many memories never form.
p.21 for other encoding failure exercises 6

7. Storage Decay
Ebbinghaus showed the idea that much of what we learn we quickly forget with his forgetting curve.
The course of forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off with time.
Ebbinghaus made up more nonsense syllables and measured how much he retained when relearning each list 7

8. Retaining Spanish
Bahrick (1984) showed a similar pattern of forgetting and retaining over 50 years.
People who had been out of school for 3 years had forgotten much of what they had learned, but after 3 years, their forgetting leveled off 8

9. Retrieval Failure
Although the information is retained in the memory store, it cannot be accessed.
Tip-of-the-tongue is a retrieval failure phenomenon. Given a cue (What makes blood cells red?) the subject says the word begins with an H (hemoglobin).
Handout 9-8 9

10. Interference
Learning new information may disrupt retrieval of other information.
2 Types
Proactive Interference
Retroactive Interference 10

11. Proactive Interference
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info 11

12. Retroactive Interference
The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information 12

13. Retroactive Interference
Sleep prevents retroactive interference. Therefore, it leads to better recall. 13

14. Motivated Forgetting
Motivated Forgetting: People unknowingly revise their memories.
Repression: A defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.
p.24 – lecture: Suppressed Memory
Culver Pictures
Sigmund Freud 14

15. Why do we forget?
Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. We filter, alter, or lose much information during these stages.
p.23 – Repression or Inadequate Retrieval Clues 15

16. Crash Course
Episode 14: Remembering & Forgetting