1. Fully explain your evaluation points (PEE)
Learning Objectives
To understand and evaluate trace decay and displacement theory
To know research relevant to these theories of forgetting
Major mistakes from the essay are below – did you make any? Make your corrections before the lesson begins!!
You must introduce things as evaluation to guarantee yourself A02 marks e.g. in evaluation….
Fully explain your evaluation points (PEE)
The Morris study does go against the levels of processing explanation because it says acoustic info was remembered better – but WHY was this? Under which circumstances?

2. Starter
January 2009
3 (a) Outline what is meant by retrieval failure. Briefly explain how it might affect a student’s ability to recall information in an examination room after learning the information while in his bedroom. (4 marks)
[AO1 = 2 AO2 = 2]
(AO1) Up to 2 marks for knowledge of retrieval failure (credit context dependent forgetting).
(AO2) Up to 2 marks for application to the example.
Possible answer:
Information is stored in LTM (1) but not accessible because the cues needed to access it are not present. (1). Therefore in this case, the student learned while in a bedroom but this context does not match his recall environment of the exam room (1). So he will not be able to recall the information (1).
Accept other valid answers such as state cues.

3. Introduction
Each of you has a table which summarises whether the theory of forgetting relates specifically to long term or short-term memory
You need to think of a pictorial representation of each type of forgetting (you have the descriptions of each type if you can’t remember from last time)
The link to a picture will help you to remember it!!
Short-term memory
Short-term and long-term memory
Long-term memory
Decay
Interference
Displacement
Lack of consolidation
Retrieval failure
Motivated forgetting

4. Intro: think of a picture to go with each theory of forgetting…
Trace decay explains forgetting as the fading of neurological trace which is formed when a stimulus is encoded.
Displacement is based on the limited capacity of STM because when the seven ‘slots’ are full, new information pushes out the oldest information in short-term store.
Retrieval failure is concerned with cues, both internal and external, which aid retrieval of memories. However, the research into retrieval failure has often involved extreme conditions and therefore has lacked ecological validity.
There are two types of interference: retroactive and proactive. Support for interference theory of forgetting comes largely from laboratory studies and these may not be relevant to forgetting in real life.
Lack of consolidation as a theory of forgetting refers to the necessary period of time required so that memories can be ‘embedded’ in long-term store, and if disruption occurs during the consolidation period then memories of events just prior to the incident are lost.
Motivated forgetting refers to Freud’s theory of repression, which is when anxiety-provoking material is pushed into the unconscious and becomes inaccessible.

5. Main: research to support, evaluation
Each of you has a worksheet which summarises trace decay and displacement theory, a piece of research which you can use with these theories as well as some general evaluation points
TASK: Read through the info in your textbooks (pages ), complete the missing information, answer the questions about the study (at the end)

6. Can you use the below stimulus to explain how Waugh and Norman’s study provides support for / refutes the theories of trace decay and displacement?

7. Main: review
from Short-Term Memory: Decay or Displacement?
Use the above stimulus to explain how Waugh and Norman’s study provides support for / refutes the theories of trace decay and displacement?

8. Plenary
June 2010
Describe and evaluate two explanations of forgetting. Refer to evidence in your answer.(10 marks)

9. AO1 Up to 5 marks for identifying and elaborating two explanations
AO1 Up to 5 marks for identifying and elaborating two explanations. Likely explanations:
interference theory: pro- and retro-active inhibition; retrieval failure: lack of state/context
cues/organisation; lack of consolidation: interruption of the time period/physical
disruption; motivated forgetting: repression/inaccessible memory; trace decay: fading of
memory due to passage of time; displacement: limited capacity of STM. Credit
description of evidence up to 2 marks. Likely studies: Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924),
Keppel and Underwood (1962), Schmidt et al (2000), Tulving and Pearlstone (1966),
Bower et al (1969), Godden and Baddeley (1975), Drachman and Sahakian (1979)
Yarnell and Lynch (1970), Waugh and Norman (1965), Glucksberg and Lloyd (1967),
Williams (1994), Groome and Soureti (2004).
AO2 Up to 5 marks for analysis and evaluation of the two explanations. Likely points: why
memory is affected according to the explanation(s) chosen, evaluation of studies of
forgetting if made relevant to the explanations. Comparison of explanations. Credit use
of examples up to 1 mark for each explanation. Credit use of evidence.
Maximum 6 marks – only one explanation
Maximum 6 marks – no evidence
There were some very good answers to this question; however, there was also evidence of muddle in many essays. Candidates who chose to describe and evaluate interference often confused retroactive and proactive interference. Lack of consolidation was often poorly described as information failing to move from STM to LTM. Candidates then found it difficult to explain why the concussed football players had recalled information immediately but were unable to recall the same information a few minutes later. Few recognised that this explanation relates to biological disruption. Motivated forgetting was often described as ‘forgetting on purpose.’