ForgettingMemory Construction

andMemory Improvement

Are there advantages to forgetting stuff.

What would the hassles be of not being able to forget

anything?

Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia

• Those who cannot remember their past• “Retro” means going backward, like a

retro look for a party

Anterograde Amnesia

• Those who cannot form new, explicit memories but implicit, automatic memory not affected.

Two-track Mind

Case studies about these two types of amnesia confirm we have two distinct memory systems, controlled by different parts of the brain.

Forgetting for most of us is quite a bit less dramatic. There can be problems with

• Encoding

• Storage

• Retrieval

Encoding Failure

Much of what we sense we never notice

What we fail to encode, we don’t remember

Encoding slows with age, so age can affect encoding

Encoding Failure

Encoding Failure

Encoding Failure

Retrieval Cues

Sometimes it helps to have some sort of stimulus to help us remember.

This is called a Retrieval Cue.• Priming• Context Dependent• State Dependent

Encoding Specificity

Storage Decay

Even after encoding something well, we sometimes later forget it.

Herman Ebbinghaus conducted research in this area.

Storage Decay

Retrieval Failure

Often forgetting isn’t memories faded but memories unretrieved.

Sometimes important memories defy our attempt to retrieve them.

Retrieval cues may help.

Such as “It begins with an M.”

Retrieval Failure

Retrieval Failure

Retrieval Failure

Interference

As you collect more and more information your mental attic gets cluttered.

Sometimes your clutter interferes as new learning collides with old.

Proactive Interference is the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference is the disruptive effect new learning has on the recall of old information.