This content is about memory and forgetting which will be helpful for nursing and education students. It describes about types, causes of forgetting, theories of forgetting etc..

1. PROFESSOR, SRMTCON.

2. In our daily life we have experienced the time we want to
recall the name of a friend and we realize that we have forgotten it.
Forgetting occurs only when some learning has taken place. If there is no
learning then there is no forgetting. Thus forgetting &remembering are two
sides of the same coin. So when we are unable to remember it‘s called forgetting.
Forgetting is being unable to find the correct
information. (from the mind) at the given situation. Forgetting is temporary at
times when later we can remember the names & actions whereas forgetting is
said to be permanent when in no situation we are able to recall the
information.

3.  Munn: “Forgetting is the loss permanent or temporary of
the ability to recall or recognize something learnt earlier”
 Drever: “Forgetting means failure at any time to recall an
experience, when attempting to do so or perform an action
previously done.
 Bhatia: “Forgetting is the failure of an individual to review
in consciousness an idea or a group of ideas without the
help of original stimulus.”

4. Forgetting is just the opposite side of
remembering and essentially a failure in the
ability of reproducing. It is classified as:
 Natural forgetting and
 Morbid forgetting (abnormal)

5. Natural forgetting:
Forgetting occurs with the lapse of time in a quite normal
way without any intention of forgetting on the part of the
individual.
Morbid forgetting (abnormal):
Person deliberately tries to forget something (depression)
according to some other view, forgetting may be classified
as general or specific:
In general forgetfulness one suffers a total loss in one’s
recalling some previous learning.
In specific forgetfulness the individual forgets only one
or the other specific part of his earlier learning.

6.  Another classification:
In physical forgetfulness one loses his memory on
account of the factors of age, disease, biological
malfunctioning of brain and nervous system,
accidents, consumption of liquor or other
intoxicating materials, etc.
In psychological forgetfulness one loses his memory
on account of factors like stress anxiety, conflicts,
temper provocation, lack of interest, apathy,
repression or similar other emotional and psychic
difficulties.

7.  1. Inadequate Impression at the Time of Learning:
The reason for inadequate impression is lack of attention
and inadequate learning will is necessary for good memory.
Forced learning results in no learning because forced
learning distracts our attention
 2. Laps of Time:
With the passage of time what is learned or experienced is
forgotten. This is a passive decay. The memory traces
formed in the brain gets faded and becomes weather with
the passage of time.

8.  3. Interference:
One type of learning interface with the learning of another type is
called theory of interference. There are two types of interface,
proactive interface and retroactive interface
(a) Proactive interference:
When something learnt earlier distrusts recall of something you are
learning how. In other words, it can be explained as the interference
of past-learnt material in recalling the newly learnt material.
(b) Retroactive interference:
When learning now makes it harder to recall something you learned
earlier. Here recently learnt material interferences in recalling of
past-learnt material.

9.  4. Lack of Rest and Sleep:
Continuous learning without rest and sleep may lead to greater
forgetting due to inefficient consolidation. Experimental studies
have shown that sleep following learning favours retention, it has
also been found that saving is definitely greater after sleep
especially with 8 hours interval. Forgetting is slow during sleep.
 5. Poor Health and Defective Mental State:
Memory traces are essential for remembering only when we pay
attention to the information that has to be stored can be saved but
poor health and mental tension effect own attention, which in turn
affects the effective learning and receiving.

10.  6. Nature of the Material Learned:
Amount of forgetting also varies with the nature of
the material learned. Ebbing Hans and others have
verified the fact that humans remember things that
are meaningful better than things that are not.
 7. Methods Used to Learn:
Apart from the nature of the material we learn,
systematic and efficient methods used in learning
also influence our rate of forgetting.

11.  8. Raise in Emotion:
Emotion plays an important role in learning and forgetting.
Sudden rise of emotions blocks the recall. During the high
emotional state, blood sugar level is impaired. To maintain
the balance internal gland produces cartisole that disturbs
memory cells.
Hence we experience mental block leading to description in
thinking, reasoning and perception, etc. For instance,
students having the fear of examination cannot recall
anything. Emotional shocks that occur during, before or

12.  Apart from the external causes; internal causes, that is functional and
organic factors, also cause forgetting. They are nothing but the
condition that disturbs memory referred to as amnesia.
 Amnesia is a condition in which memory is disturbed. The causes of
amnesia are organic or functional. Organic causes include damage to
the brain through trauma or disease or use of certain drugs.
Functional causes are psychological factors such as defense
mechanisms.
 Amnesia may also be spontaneous, in the case of transient global
amnesia. This global type of amnesia is more common in middle-
aged to elderly people, particularly makes and usually lasts less than
24 hours. Types of amnesia are dissociative amnesia, childhood
amnesia, psychogenic amnesia, global amnesia, etc..

14.  This explanation of forgetting in short term memory assumes
that memories leave a trace in the brain. A trace is some form of
physical and/or chemical change in the nervous system.
 Trace decay theory states that forgetting occurs as a result of the
automatic decay or fading of the memory trace. Trace decay theory
focuses on time and the limited duration of short term memory.
 This theory suggests short term memory can only hold information
for between 15 and 30 seconds unless it is rehearsed. After this time
the information / trace decays and fades away.

15.  No one disputes the fact that memory tends to get worse the
longer the delay between learning and recall, but there is
disagreement about the explanation for this effect.
 According to the trace decay theory of forgetting, the events
between learning and recall have no affect whatsoever on
recall. It is the length of time the information has to be retained
that is important. The longer the time, the more the memory
trace decays and as a consequence more information is forgotten.

16.  There are a number of methodological problems
confronting researchers trying to investigate the
trace decay theory. One of the major problems is
controlling for the events that occur between
learning and recall.
 Clearly, in any real-life situation, the time between
learning something and recalling it will be filled
with all kinds of different events. This makes it very
difficult to be sure that any forgetting which takes
place is the result of decay rather than a
consequence of the intervening events.

17.  If you had asked psychologists during the 1930s, 1940s, or
1950s what caused forgetting you would probably have
received the answer "Interference".
 It was assumed that memory can be disrupted or
interfered with by what we have previously learned or by
what we will learn in the future. This idea suggests that
information in long term memory may become confused
or combined with other information during encoding thus
distorting or disrupting memories

18.  Interference theory states that forgetting occurs because memories
interfere with and disrupt one another, in other words forgetting
occurs because of interference from other memories (Baddeley,
1999). There are two ways in which interference can cause
forgetting:
 1. Proactive interference (pro=forward) occurs when you cannot
learn a new task because of an old task that had been
learnt. When what we already know interferes with what we are
currently learning – where old memories disrupt new memories.
 2. Retroactive interference (retro=backward) occurs when you
forget a previously learnt task due to the learning of a new task. In
other words, later learning interferes with earlier learning - where

19.  Proactive and retroactive Interference is thought to be more likely to
occur where the memories are similar, for example: confusing old and
new telephone numbers. Chandler (1989) stated that students who
study similar subjects at the same time often experience interference.
 Previous learning can sometimes interfere with new learning (e.g.
difficulties we have with foreign currency when travelling abroad). Also
new learning can sometimes cause confusion with previous learning.
(Starting French may affect our memory of previously learned Spanish
vocabulary).
 In the short term memory interference can occur in the form of
distractions so that we don’t get the chance to process the information
properly in the first place. (e.g. someone using a loud drill just outside
the door of the classroom.)

24.  Reference :
Dr. S.K. Mangal “Psychology for nursing”
pg. no 185- 189.
R. Sreevani “Psychology for nurses” pg. no 70-
76- 79.