incidental forgetting

Question 1

what is superior autobiographical memory?

Answer 1

uncontrolled remembering

Question 2

what is ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve?

Answer 2

there is initial rapid memory loss but forgetting reduces over time

Question 3

what did meeter et al (2015) discover about remembering public event?

Answer 3

failed recall dropped from 60% to 30% in the space of a year

Question 4

what did bahrick et al (1975) discover about remembering personal events?

Answer 4

cued recall of name when given classmates face was impaired, with similar pattern to forgetting curve

Question 5

what did bahrick (1984) discover about forgetting languages?

Answer 5

forgetting taught foreign language levels out after 2 years

Question 6

what is availability?

Answer 6

an item may not have a memory trace anymore

Question 7

what is accessibility?

Answer 7

an item may be stored but may not be accessible any more

Question 8

what are 3 factors discouraging forgetting?

Answer 8

• better learning at the beginning
• repeated attempts of retrieval
• jost’s law

Question 9

what did linton et al (1975) discover about incomplete/incorrect retrieval?

Answer 9

incomplete or incorrect retrieval leads to disrupted memories

Question 10

are all memories equally vulnerable to disruption?

Answer 10

no, they are not all equally vulnerable due to the forgetting curve

Question 11

what is jost’s law?

Answer 11

older memories are forgotten less rapidly than new memories

Question 12

how long are new memories vulnerable for?

Answer 12

until they are consolidated

Question 13

what is consolidation?

Answer 13

transforming memories from a fragile state to a permanent state

Question 14

what is synaptic consolidation?

Answer 14

structural change of synaptic connections, memories are vulnerable until complete

Question 15

how long can synaptic consolidation take?

Answer 15

hours or days

Question 16

what is systems consolidation?

Answer 16

reorganisation of the neural circuit, traces in the cortex make their own links and memory shifts from hippocampus to cortex

Question 17

how long does systems consolidation take?

Answer 17

months or years, memories are vulnerable when reliant on hippocampus

Question 18

what is trace decay?

Answer 18

memories weaken due to the passage of time, memory’s activation fades

Question 19

how does frankland et al (2013) say trace decay is related to neurogenesis?

Answer 19

trace decay is the opposite of neurogenesis, which is bad for memories in the hippocampus

Question 20

which two factors cant be controlled in trace decay?

Answer 20

rehearsal and interference from new memories

Question 21

what are the 2 correlates of time?

Answer 21

contextual fluctuation and interference

Question 22

what is contextual fluctuation?

Answer 22

difference in context at encoding and retrieval

Question 23

how does incidental context differ over time?

Answer 23

incidental context is more similar to recent past than remote past

Question 24

what is interference?

Answer 24

cues become assoicated with similar memories which makes it difficult to discriminate between traces

Question 25

why does interference disrupt retrieval?

Answer 25

memories associated to similar cues compete and hinder access to the target memory

Question 26

what is retroactive interference?

Answer 26

new memories impair recall of old memories if they have similar cues

Question 27

what did baddeley & hitch (1977) discover about retroactive interference?

Answer 27

newer rugby games interfere with recall of older games

Question 28

what is proactive interference?

Answer 28

older memories interfere with the retrieval of recent memories

Question 29

what determines the rate of forgetting newer memories in proactive retrieval?

Answer 29

the number of older experiences

Question 30

what is part-set cuing impairment?

Answer 30

retrieval is impaired by cues from the same category of the target memory

Question 31

what did slamecka (1968) discover about part-set cuing?

Answer 31

providing cues reduced retrieval of the target memory

Question 32

what is anderson et al's (1994) retrieval induced forgetting?

Answer 32

selective/partial retrieval harms recall of other memories related to the retrieved item

Question 33

what did shaw, bjork & handal (1995) discover about retrieval induced forgetting?

Answer 33

interrogating ps about stolen items in crime scene impaired memory of related items

Question 34

what does incomplete retrieval cause?

Answer 34

forgetting

Question 35

what are 3 interference mechanisms?

Answer 35

associative blocking, associative unlearning, inhibition

Question 36

what is associative blocking?

Answer 36

cue elicits stronger competitors impacting retrieval of target memory

Question 37

what is associative unlearning?

Answer 37

retrieval errors weaken associative bonds

Question 38

what is inhibition?

Answer 38

unwanted responses are stopped and alternative responses are strengthened

Question 39

what does inhibition suggest about forgetting?

Answer 39

forgetting targets the memory rather than associative cues

Question 40

what is the functional account of forgetting?

Answer 40

forgetting controls retrieval in the face of competitors and facilitates retrieval of strengthened memories

Question 41

what did richards & frankland (2017) say is the goal of memory?

Answer 41

to guide decision making

Question 42

what did richards & frankland (2017) say forgetting allows?

Answer 42

flexible behaviour and generalization of past experiences