Lecture 4: Types of Forgetting

Question 1

What is incidental forgetting?

Answer 1

This occurs without the intention to forget

Question 2

What is motivated forgetting?

Answer 2

Purposefully diminishing access to memory (i.e., unwanted memories)

Question 3

What is superior autobiographical memory?

Answer 3

Uncontrollable remembering, it feels as though the person relives the events they remember - not under conscious control.
Cannot forget unpleasant memories.

Question 4

Do we forget at a constant rate over time?

Answer 4

No, while forgetting does increase as time progresses, the rate of forgetting is different.

Question 5

What is the forgetting curve?

Answer 5

Proposed by Ebbinghaus. It has a logarithmic relationship, meaning it is rapid initially. There is less additional forgetting at longer intervals.

Question 6

Meeter et al., 2005 conducted a study on forgetting public events, what did this study conclude?

Answer 6

The results were similar to Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curse. Recall had a steep initial drop, followed by a slower forgetting rate. Recall for EVENTS dropped from 60% to 30% in a year. The recognition for the same effects was less affected.

Question 7

Bahrick et al., 1975 conducted a study on forgetting personal events [recall and recognition of classmates after delay of up to 30 years], what were the results?

Answer 7

That recognition of classmates’ faces/names remained intact; match up names with faces was also unimpaired. However, the recall of a name when given a person’s pictures was extensively impaired [rate of forgetting was similar to Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve]

Question 8

Bahrick then conducted a second study in 1984 aiming to explore forgetting again after a delay of 2 years, what were the results?

Answer 8

Forgetting levels out after a period of 2 years, and there is little forgetting after this period.

Question 9

We know that recall is generally worse after delays than recognition, what distinction should be made?

Answer 9

Between availability and accessibility - BOTH DENOTE FORGETTING

Question 10

What is availability?

Answer 10

Is the item in memory store? The item may not have a memory trace

Question 11

What is accessibility?

Answer 11

Is the item accessible for retrieval? The item may be stored but not accessible.

Question 12

What factors discourage forgetting?

Answer 12

> Better learning at the beginning
Repeated attempts to retrieve [testing effect/generation effect] builds up resistance

Question 13

What can lead to memory distortions?

Answer 13

Incomplete or inaccurate retrieval - but not all memories are equally vulnerable to forgetting at all points in their history.

Question 14

What is Jost’s Law?

Answer 14

Equal, older memories are more durable, forgotten less rapidly. New memories are initially vulnerable until they are consolidated.

Question 15

What is consolidation?

Answer 15

The process that transforms new memories from a fragile state, in which they can be disrupted, to a more permanent state.

Question 16

What are the two types of consolidation?

Answer 16

Synaptic consolidation and Systems consolidation

Question 17

What is synaptic consolidation?

Answer 17

These are structural changes in synaptic connections between neurons [hours/days to complete]. Memories are vulnerable until these changes are made

Question 18

What is systems consolidation?

Answer 18

This is the gradual shift of memory from hippocampus to the cortex. Memory components [in cortex] are replayed until they are linked [months/years to complete] - memories are vulnerable for as long as they rely on the hippocampus

Question 19

What are the causes of incidental forgetting?

Answer 19

Trace decay, context shifts, and interference

Question 20

What is trace decay?

Answer 20

Memories weaken due to passage of time. Priming and familiarity especially prone to decay. ACTIVATIONS FADE, but memory stays intact.

Question 21

What is the biological basis for trace decay?

Answer 21

Synaptic connections degrade and neurons die as time goes by [memories do the same]. Neurogenesis [growth of new neurons] means that the structure is remodelled and connections modified.
Good for new learning - generation of new associations
Bad for older memories retained in hippocampus.

Question 22

Behaviourally, it is difficult to prove trace decay, which two factors cannot be controlled when attributing forgetting to trace decay?

Answer 22

Rehearsal and Interference from new experiences

Question 23

Why are context shifts a cause of incidental forgetting?

Answer 23

Different cues are available now than the ones available at encoding. Similarity between encoding and retrieval context may explain forgetting.

Question 24

What are the two types of interference?

Answer 24

Retroactive and Proactive

Question 25

What is interference?

Answer 25

Similar memories hinder retrieval, and it is difficult to discriminate between them. It occurs due to the negative effect of having competitors, it increases with the number of competitors a target memory has.

Question 26

What is competition assumption?

Answer 26

Memories associated to a shared cue automatically impede retrieval when the cue is presented.

Question 27

How many associators does a cue activate?

Answer 27

All of them

Question 28

What do the activated associates compete for?

Answer 28

Access to consciousness

Question 29

What hinders access to a target memory?

Answer 29

Competitors

Question 30

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 30

Introducing a new memory impairs recall of a first memory.

Question 31

What is proactive interference?

Answer 31

The tendency of older memories to interfere with retrieval of recent experiences and knowledge.

Question 32

What is part-set cuing impairment?

Answer 32

Recall is impaired by the provision of retrieval cues drawn from the same category of items in memory. [Providing hints may impede memory retrieval]

Question 33

What is retrieval-induced forgetting? Proposed by Anderson et al., 1984

Answer 33

Selective/partial retrieval can harm recall of other memories related to the retrieved item. Selective retrieval may contribute to more severe forgetting for information that is not practiced/retrieved.

Question 34

What are the two interference mechanisms?

Answer 34

Associative blocking and associative unlearning.

Question 35

What is associative blocking?

Answer 35

A cue fails to elicit a target trace because it repeatedly elicits a stronger competitor, leading people to abandon efforts to retrieve target, e.g., tip of the tongue

Question 36

What is associative unlearning?

Answer 36

Associative bond linking a stimulus to a memory trace is punished by weakening it after being retrieved in error.

Question 37

What is inhibition?

Answer 37

Allows an unwanted response to be stopped, while an alternative response needs to get strengthened.

Question 38

What is the functional account of forgetting?

Answer 38

Forgetting is to control retrieval in the face of competition. May serve a functional purpose and therefore can be an ACTIVE PROCESS

Question 39

According to the functional account of forgetting, how can it be beneficial?

Answer 39

Facilitates future retrieval attempts of practiced/strengthened memories by inhibiting competitors - serves goal-directed behaviour and decision making.

Question 40

How should memory NOT be viewed?

Answer 40

As a means for high-fidelity transmission of information

Question 41

What is the goal of memory?

Answer 41

To guide intelligent decision making

Question 42

Another perspective of memory is that it promotes flexibility and generalisation, it shows that forgetting is not a failure of memory, but what does it represent?

Answer 42

An investment in a more optimal mnemonic strategy.