Unit 4: Memory 5.4.16 Entry Task Remember your list of veggies, fruits, & teachers?
Pleasant items are usually remembered earlier than unpleasant ones Part 6 Forgetting Forgetting Forgetting: an inability to
retrieve information due to poor encoding, storage, or retrieval. 4 Encoding Failure We cannot remember what we do not encode.
o Because the info never enters long-term storage 5 Which penny is real? 6
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. 7
Retaining Spanish Bahrick (1984) showed a similar pattern of forgetting and retaining over 50 years. o 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 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). 9 Interference
Learning new information may disrupt retrieval of other information. 2 Types Proactive Interference Retroactive Interference 10
Proactive Interference The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new info 11 Retroactive
Interference The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information 12 Retroactive Interference
Sleep prevents retroactive interference. Therefore, it leads to better recall. 13 Motivated Forgetting Motivated Forgetting: People unknowingly
revise their memories. Culver Pictures Repression: A defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from
consciousness. Sigmund Freud 14 Why do we forget? Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. We filter, alter,
or lose much information during these stages. 15 Crash Course Episode
14: Remembering & Forgetting
