9- Forgetting

Question 1

What are Schacter’s 7 sins of memory?

Answer 1

Forgetting
Distortions
Transience
Interference
Blocking
Absentmindedness
Persistence

Question 2

What is Transience?

Answer 2

Forgetting over time

• Ebbinghaus task
  Participant memorises a list of nonsense syllables until recall is perfect
  After a delay, they memorise the same list again until recall is perfect again

Question 3

Transience key terms

Answer 3

Savings: amount of time saved memorising the second time compared to the first time
Forgetting curve: plot depicting savings vs time
Decay theory: memories are forgotten due to passage of time
Interference theory: memories are forgotten due to interference from other memories
Proactive: earlier memories interfere with later memories
Retroactive: later interfere with earlier memories

Question 4

What is interference?

Answer 4

A memory phenomenon in which some memories interfere with the retrieval of other memories

Question 5

How was interference tested?

Answer 5

o Participants memorise a list of words
o Count backwards from 20
o Recall words from memory in any order
o They repeat these steps with another list

Question 6

What is blocking?

Answer 6

When something is on the top of your tongue. Temporarily forgetting something accompanied by the feeling of being on the verge of remembering

Question 7

What task was used to test blocking?

Answer 7

1. A definition of an infrequent word is presented to participants
2. They respond with the corresponding word
3. If they do not have a response but feel on the verge of remembering, they respond with other information about it

Evidence that when on the tip of our tongue, participants sometimes have information about the number of syllables in a word

Question 8

What is absentmindedness?

Answer 8

• Divided attention- attention to multiple things
• Task
  1. Participants memorise a list of words
  2. They recall words from memory in any order
  3. During encoding or retrieval, they also respond to visual stimuli (visual task at the same time)
• Evidence that divided attention is associated with large reductions in memory performance at encoding and smaller reductions at retrieval

Question 9

What is persistence?

Answer 9

• Flashbulb memories: detailed memories of shocking events
• These memories may be enhanced by emotional arousal and elaboration
• Talarico and Rubin
  1. On September 12th 2001 participants were asked open-ended questions about the terrorist attacks on the previous morning as well as an everyday event
  2. They were asked the same questions after 1,6 and 32 weeks
• The consistency of both flashbulb and everyday memories declines over time but beliefs in their accuracy only declined for everyday memories