it will be beneficial for all.

1. THEORIES OF FORGETTING

3. Forgetting refers to the inability to retrieve
previously stored information.
When you forget something it means that it
is unavailable to you at the time you are
trying to remember it, not that it is gone
forever.
The information may be stored in your
memory but for some reason you cannot
retrieve it when you want to.
Forgetting is supposed to occur when the
information in LTM decays due to passage of
time or due to interference from other
material or due to the time elapsed

4. A forgetting curve shows the pattern (rate
and amount) of forgetting that occurs over
time.
Generally this curve shows that forgetting is
rapid at first, then the rate of memory loss
gradually declines as time passes.
More than half of the memory loss occurs
within the first hour after learning.

5. You can see that
over half of what
is learnt is
forgotten in the
first hour
Most of what we
forget (about 65%
) is lost in the
first 8 hours

6. Psychologists have developed a number of
theories to explain why we forget.
Forgetting may occur because:
The right retrieval cue is not used.
There is interference from competing material.
There is some underlying motivation not to
remember.
Memory fades through disuse.

7. Retrieval Failure Theory refers to when we
forget because we lack or fail to use the
right cues or prompts to retrieve what is
stored in our memory.
This theory is often referred to as cue-dependent
forgetting and is a useful
explanation of why we sometimes fail to
retrieve information even when we’re sure
we know the information.

8. Retrieval failure is where the information is in long
term memory, but cannot be accessed. Such
information is said to be available (i.e. it is still
stored) but not accessible (i.e. it cannot be
retrieved). It cannot be accessed because the
retrieval cues are not present. When we store a new
memory we also store information about the situation
and these are known as retrieval cues. When we
come into the same situation again, these retrieval
cues can trigger the memory of the situation.
Retrieval cues can be:
External / Context - in the environment, e.g. smell,
place etc.
Internal / State- inside of us, e.g. physical,
emotional, mood, drunk etc.

9. Have you ever tried to recall a fact – perhaps
the name of an actor in a movie – that you’re
sure you know and feel just on the verge of
remembering?
You know that you know the answer but can
not quite bring it forth.
Psychologists call this the tip-of-the-tongue
phenomenon.

10. Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) is a state, or
‘feeling’, that occurs when individuals are
aware of knowing something, confident they
will eventually remember it, but aren’t able
to retrieve it from memory at that point in
time.
When the sought after information is
recalled, its recall tends to occur suddenly,
often seeming to ‘pop’ out of memory.

11. The apparent gap in memory which occurs
in a TOT state is particularly intriguing
because even though we can’t say the
word, we have some information about
the word we want;
For example we can often tell how many
syllables it has, the beginning and ending
letters, or what it rhymes with.
We can also eliminate words that don’t sound
right or are incorrect.

12. These observations suggest that TOT involves
a partial retrieval process in which bits of
information can act as retrieval cues for the
required information, helping to ‘home in’ on
this information.
Furthermore, the observation that specific
bits or types of information assist in retrieval
indicates information in LTM is stored in an
organised way and in a variety of forms.

13. The TOT phenomenon is significant because
it illustrates several aspects of the retrieval
process.
First it shows that retrieving is not an all-or-nothing
process.
Second, information is stored in LTM but it is
not accessible without retrieval cues.
Third, TOT experiences indicate that
information stored in LTM is organised and
connected in relatively logical ways.

14. Decay theory is based on an assumption that
when something new is learned, a physical
change or chemical trace of the experience
which contains the stored information is
formed in the brain.
This is called memory trace and is believed
to gradually fade or disintegrate as time
passes unless it is reactivated by being used
again.

16. Trace decay theory explains memories that are
stored in both short term and long term memory
system. According to this theory, short term memory
(STM) can only retain information for a limited
amount of time, around 15 to 30 seconds unless it is
rehearsed.
If it is not rehearsed, the information will start to
gradually fade away and decay. Donald Heb
proposed that incoming information causes a series
of neurons to create a neurological memory trace in
the brain which would result in change in the
morphological and/or chemical changes in the brain
and would fade with time. Repeated firing causes a
structural change in the synapses. Rehearsal of
repeated firing maintains the memory in STM until a
structural change is made.

17. Therefore, forgetting happens as a result of
automatic fading of the memory trace in brain.
This theory states that the events between
learning and recall have no effects on recall; the
important factor that affects is the duration that
the information has been retained. Hence, as
longer time passes more of traces are subject to
decay and as a result the information is
forgotten. One major problem about this theory
is that in real-life situation, the time between
encoding a piece of information and recalling it,
is going to be filled with all different kinds of
events that might happen to the individual.
Therefore, it is difficult to conclude that
forgetting is a result of only the time duration.

18. . Decay theory suggest that we forget something
because the memory of it fades with time. This
theory would suggest that if we do not attempt
to recall an event, the greater the time since
the event the more likely we would be to forget
the event. Thus, this theory suggests that
memories are not permanent.
There are other theories of
forgetting. Memory for an event may reflect
interference. The interference theory of
forgetting suggest that we would forget
something because other information learned is
interfering with our ability to recall it.

19. One problem with the decay theory of
forgetting is that we do not know whether
the failure to recall something reflects that
it is no longer in our memory, or that it
reflects retrieval failure. Perhaps it is still
there but we cannot retrieve the memory for
some reason.

20. 1) Shape of the forgetting curve is greatly
influenced by the activities during the
retention interval.
2) The logarithmic function does not hold
for autobiographical memories.
3) Therefore, there is little evidence that
decay is the primary cause of loss of
information from long-term memory.

21. Four different explanations:
decay: minimal role in LTS forgetting
consolidation: disruption occurs under
special circumstances
interference theory: explains some
forgetting, but the mechanisms need work
retrieval failure: richest, most complete
explanation, but may be circular.