1. Lesson 13:
Forgetting Curve - The Work of
Ebbinghaus
Sunday, 31 March 13
2. Lesson 13: Forgetting & Memory Loss
EXAM QUESTION
(Taken from VCAA Sample Exam 2011)
Sunday, 31 March 13
3. Model Response:
a. The Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon is knowing that your memory does
have the name, item or material you are trying to remember but just cannot
retrieve it at that moment.
b. Any one of the following:
1) Retrieval Failure Theory - the information was available but not accessible
due to inadequate retrieval cues
OR
2) Interference Theory - the information is available but is blocked by
interference from similar sounding material
Sunday, 31 March 13
4. Lesson 13 - The Forgetting Curve - The Work of Ebbinghaus
Objectives
Outline techniques used to manipulate and improve memory
Describe the significance of the Forgetting curve as informed by the work of
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Explain the measures of retention including the relative sensitivity of recall,
recognition and relearning
Explain the effect of context dependent cues and state dependent cues
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8. Why is it we can remember our phone
number which we learnt many years
prior, but cannot remember a number we
learnt last lesson???
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9. The forgetting curve
represents the normal
pattern of forgetting
for new meaningless
information
Generally we
forget about 60% of
what we have just
processed within the
first 20 minutes.
More than half of memory Most of the material that will be forgotten
loss that occurs is within the is done so within the first 8 hours, then it
first hour. steadies out.
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10. You will forget less if:
* The information is meaningful
* Information is learnt over an extended period
of time
* Information is encoded well
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11. Measures of Retention – Measuring
Memory
Recall
Recognition
Relearning
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12. Recall - Being asked to reproduce information with the fewest possible
cues.
Free Recall – asked to remember as much information as possible in no
particular order -List of grocery items
Serial Recall – asked to recall information in a particular order - Names of
Cities (itinerary)
Cued Recall - given a cue then asked to recall Seven Dwarfs: first letter of
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13. Recognition - Identifying correct information from among alternatives.
Can retrieve more this way as recognition provides more cues for
retrieving from LTM.
Recognition is a more sensitive measure
Example – multiple choice Q’s
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14. Relearning - Even if you can’t recall or recognise initially it doesn’t
mean there is no memory. If you relearn it and learn it more quickly the
2nd time, the assumption is that there was some memory available
Especially true for procedural memory - saying its like riding a bicycle -
never forget how to ride a bike
Savings score - if the time taken to learn the material originally can be
measured and compared with the time taken to relearn the same
material, then a savings score can be calculated
(time for original learning) - (times for relearning) x 100%
Savings __________________________________________
=
Score
(time for original learning
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15. Measures of retention - sensitivity
Recall worst
Recognition better
Relearning best
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