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Uh-oh. You can't seem to find your phone. Or perhaps you've forgotten your email password (yet again). We've all been there – the good news is that forgetting is an inevitable part of life. But why do we forget, anyway? What are the factors affecting forgetting in psychology? Read on to find out.
The interference theory of forgetting in psychology explains the causes of forgetting in long-term memory (LTM). According to the interference theory, forgetting happens when memories interfere with and disturb one another; in other words, forgetting occurs when two pieces of information are in conflict.
During encoding, LTM may become confused or mixed with other information, resulting in memory distortion and disruption. Due to response competition, interference is more likely to happen if the memories are similar. Time sensitivity also affects the likelihood of inference. Interference is less likely to occur when there is a large gap between the instances of learning.
In the following section, we will present you with the two different types of interference in forgetting.
Proactive interference (PI), in simple words, the old interferes with the new. What we have already known previously interfere with information that we recently learnt, which leads to forgetting new memory.
Have you ever confused your old password with your new one? Or have your teachers ever mixed up the names of students with those from previous school years? These are examples of PI.
Retroactive interference (RI), in simple words, the new interferes with the old. The information that we recently learnt interferes with what we have already known previously, which leads to forgetting old memory.
Have you ever failed to remember your old postcode because you now remember the one of your current home? Or have you ever started to learn a new language that affects the memories of your mother tongue? This is due to RI.
Retrieval failure of forgetting, also known as cue-dependent forgetting, is intended to explain the failure to recall information without memory cues. Lack of cues can lead to retrieval failure. When information is first stored in memory, accompanying cues are also stored. If these cues are not there at the time of recall, you may be unable to recall information in your memory.
According to Encoding Specificity Principle (EPS) proposed by Tulving (1983), it is suggested that cues help retrieval if the same cues are present when we are learning the material (coding) and when we are recalling it (retrieval). In other words, other contextual information from when you made the memory is encoded along with the memory, such as aspects of the environment or the feeling when you made the memory.
It may be worth revising this material in the same exam hall that will be used for this exam.
Below we will discuss the two different types of retrieval failure of forgetting you need to know.
When memory retrieval is dependent on an external or environmental cue, being in a different place would make recall more difficult or even inhibit memory recall due to the lack of context-dependent cue. Such as the sights, sounds, smells, and weather of the place, etc.
Have you ever failed to recall certain memories you have of a holiday trip? If someone mentions that you went on a cruise during the journey, this may help you remember information related to that vacation, such as which restaurant you have been to or who you went with. These are due to context-dependent forgetting.
When memory retrieval is dependent on an internal or personal state cue, being in another internal state would make recall more difficult or even inhibit memory recall due to the lack of state-dependent cues. For example, mood, state of arousal, affected by drugs or alcohol, etc.
If a person had lost their wallet whilst drunk and couldn't find it once sobered up, they may have a better chance of recovering the wallet when drunk again. This is due to state-dependent forgetting.
In psychology, there are two main causes of forgetting. Firstly, forgetting happens when memories interfere with and disturb one another; in other words, forgetting occurs when two pieces of information are in conflict. This is called the Interference theory of forgetting. Secondly, forgetting happens due to the absence of memory cues. This is called retrieval failure of forgetting, also known as cue-dependent forgetting.
Proactive interference and retroactive interference.
Retrieval failure of forgetting, also known as cue-dependent forgetting, is intended to explain the failure to recall information without memory cues. Lack of cues can lead to retrieval failure. When information is first stored in memory, accompanying cues are also stored. If these cues are not there at the time of recall, you may be unable to recall information in your memory.
Context-dependent forgetting and state-dependent forgetting.
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