2. Forgetting and Distortions of
Memory
• In the 80’s and 90’s “recovered
memories” were big headlines.
• Individuals of all ages were claiming to
suddenly remember events that had been
“repressed” and forgotten for years.
• Often these memories were of abuse.
• Sometimes these recovered memories
were corroborated with physical
evidence and justice was served.
• Other times they were discovered to be
fabricated or constructed memories
3. Constructed memory
• A memory or recollection of
an event that is false or
contains false details that
never actually occurred
– Theory that holds that
memory is not a replica of the
past but a representation, or
reconstruction, of the past
– Reconstruction can lead to
distorted memories of events
and experiences
4. Elizabeth Loftus
Famous Memory researcher
showed that leading questions can easily
influence us to recall false details
questioners can create entirely new
memory by repeatedly asking leading
questions
Especially true in children
5. Why Do We Forget??
It is inevitable we all will forget
things…but why and how much?
• Retention
– The proportion of learned information that is
retained or remembered
– The flip side of forgetting
6.
7. Forgetting as an Encoding Failure
Forgetting is often a problem with how
information was encoded
You sometimes haven’t forgotten
information
The information was actually never encoded
in your memory or not encoded at a deep
enough level
It never has a chance to enter our LTM.
Sometimes called pseudoforgetting
9. Forgetting as a Storage Failure
• Memories, even saved ones, can decay over
time
– Decay Theory
• Memories just go away over time
– Without rehearsal, we forget thing over time.
• Hermann Ebbinghaus and his
Forgetting Curve
– Said as time passes by information is forgotten
gradually
– Actually spent time plotting this on a graph
– Example – remembering new vocab. words and
forgetting more as time goes by
– Example – first day forget very few, but forgetting
speeds up over time
11. Forgetting as a Retrieval Failure
• It’s in there but you can not get it out
– Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon
• Forgotten information feels like it is just out of
reach
• Interference
– One memory gets in the way of another
• Two Kinds of Interference
– Proactive Interference
– Retroactive Interference
12. Proactive Interference
• Earlier memories
interfere with new ones
– Remembering earlier
addresses while having a
hard time remembering
your new one
If you call your new girlfriend your
old girlfriend’s name.
13. Retroactive Interference
• New memories reduce
ability to retrieve older
memories
• Remembering new sport
champs and forgetting
older ones – or forgetting
your old phone number
when you get a new one
When you finally remember this
years locker combination, you
forget last years.
14. Other Reasons We May Forget
• Motivated Forgetting
– Forgetting can sometimes provide a protection from
painful memories
– Repression
• Psychogenic Amnesia
• The process of moving anxiety producing
memories to the unconscious – Freud
• Physical Injury or Trauma
– Anterograde Amnesia
• The inability to remember events that occur
after an injury or traumatic event
– Retrograde Amnesia
• The inability to remember events that occurred
before an injury or traumatic event
15. Other Reasons We Forget
• Distortions of Memory
– We sometimes construct memories that did not
happen or distort the ones that we do have
– Misinformation Effect
• Incorporating misleading information of an event into
one’s memory
• Possible planted memories
• Example – sometimes used by lawyers – Law and Order
Clip
– Children’s Recall
• Very open to misinformation effect
• Often provide memories they think an adult expects
to hear or when asked very leading questions
• Can be a problem when testifying against an accused
or falsely accused person
16. Other Reasons We May Forget
• Source Amnesia
– Having to remember at the time of recall where
memories came from
– “did I read that in the Post or NY Times?”
– It is also common for people to mix up fictional
information from novels and movies with factual
information from news and personal experiences
• Cryptomnesia
– Inadvertent plagiarism that occurs when people come up
with an idea that they think is original when they were
actually exposed to it earlier
• Confabulation
– is the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the
confusion of true memories with false memories
– Trying to fill in the blanks of something you are trying
to remember with false memories
17. Deja Vu
Usually translated as already lived or already felt
the experience of feeling sure that one has
witnessed or experienced a new situation previously
Possible explanations
An anomaly of memory
an overlap between the short-term memory (events
which are perceived as being in the present) and the
long-term memory (events which are perceived as
being in the past)
Neural misfiring
Two neurons firing from different sources, thus
coming up with two sensations (of the same stimulus)
each seeming like a different event at a different
time
