Hermann Ebbinghaus (1913) pioneered the study of ‘forgetting’. He created nonsense syllables (consonant-vowel-consonant) (meaningless words) to test his memory. Out of his experiments on himself he drew a curve which is famously called as ‘Forgetting Curve’.

1. Forgetting: An Introduction
Dr Rajesh Verma
Assistant Professor in Psychology
Govt. College Adampur, Hisar (Haryana)

2. Meaning
Literary meaning – Fails to remember.
Meaning in psychological parlance –
Inability to recall stored information into the
present state of
mind.

3. Definition
According to Bhatia (2009), “Forgetting is the failure
of the individual to revive in consciousness an idea or group
of ideas without the help of the original stimuli”.
According to Drever (1952), “Forgetting means
failure at any time to recall experience, when attempting to
do so, or to
perform an
action
previously
learnt”.

4. Introduction
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1913) pioneered the
study of ‘forgetting’. He created nonsense
syllables (consonant-vowel-consonant)
(meaningless words) to test his memory. Out of
his experiments on himself he drew a curve
which is
famously
called as
‘Forgetting
Curve’.

5. The forgetting graph indicates that forgetting
occurs fast within first hour (almost 56%). The curve
indicates that forgetting is fastest within 1 hour of
learning. This means that when the retained material is
not rehearsed or activated frequently it is likely to be
forgotten.

6. Interestingly forgetting occurs in LTM due to
decay of memory traces (engrams) that are formed
in the neural circuits. Peterson & Peterson (1959)
demonstrated that 10% retained material washes
out within first 18 seconds. It means traces are
highly vulnerable
to decay.
Forgetting also
occurs in STM but
here it occurs due
to its limited
storage capacity.

7. Forgetting is the phenomenon where tracking and
identification of engrams becomes almost impossible
consequently failing to bring them back in
consciousness.
Forgetting has two inherent components i.e.
(i) Lack of availability – It means stored information
is no more available.
(ii) Lack of accessibility
– It means the stored
information is available
but not accessible for
recalling.

8. Characteristics of Forgetting
(i) Forgetting occurs in both STM and LTM. In
STM due to limited capacity, duration, displacement
and trace decay while in LTM due to interference, trace
decay and various other factors.
(ii) Forgetting is caused due to fading of information.
Fading is faster in STM
than LTM.
(iii) Lack of adequate
attention or focus
facilitates forgetting.

9. (iv) Retrieval failure is the one of major causes of
forgetting.
(v) Forgetting can be motivated.
(vi) Forgetting can have psychological, biological
and social contexts.
(vii) Forgetting is the function of lack of
accessibility
and/or
availability of
information.

10. Causes of Forgetting
(i) Psychological Amnesia (Encoding and Storage
failure),
(ii) Biological amnesia,
(iii) Social Amnesia
(Beiner, 2018),
(iv) Trace decay,
(v) Interference,
(vi) Delay in rehearsal,

11. (vii) Lack of rehearsal (maintenance & elaborate),
(viii) Retrieval failure,
(ix) Entropy through
disuse,
(x) Dearth of Storage
Space,
(xi) Motivation to forget,
(xii) Lack of
consolidation,
(xiii) Lack of physical activity and poor diet,
(xiv) Ageing,
(xv) Nature of material learned.

12. Important Theories of Forgetting
(i) Interference Theory –
This theory suggest that
information causes
interference in retrieval and
recall of other information.
The interference of two types
i.e. Proactive and Retroactive
interference.
(a) Proactive Interference –
When previously learned
information causes
disturbance in retrieval of
newer information.

13. (b) Retroactive Interference – When newer
information interferes with retrieval of previously
learned information.
(ii) Trace Decay Theory
[use it or lose it] – This
theory suggests that LTM is
formed due to occurrence
of physical changes in the
brain [memory trace]
(Brown, 1958). The loss of
these traces [engrams] due
to several factors such as
disuse, passage of time etc.
leads to forgetting.

14. References:
1. NCERT, XI Psychology Text book.
2. Beiner, Guy (2018). Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting
and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 9780198749356.
3. Brown, J. (1958). Some tests of the decay theory of immediate
memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental psychology, 10, 12-21.

15. vermasujit@yahoo.com
Next Discussion
Factors Leading to
Forgetting