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When Memory Fails:

When Memory Fails:. Why we Forget. Memory: The persistence of learning over time. Encoding. Storage. Retrieval. Failure at Encoding. Information never transferred to long term memory, due to: Lack of attention Shallow processing No frame of reference. Failure during Storage.

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When Memory Fails:

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  1. When Memory Fails: Why we Forget

  2. Memory: The persistence of learning over time. Encoding Storage Retrieval

  3. Failure at Encoding • Information never transferred to long term memory, due to: • Lack of attention • Shallow processing • No frame of reference

  4. Failure during Storage • Decay Theory: Memory traces fade over time, especially when not retrieved. “Use it or lose it”

  5. Forgetting • Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve (1885)

  6. Failure during Retrieval • Interference Theory: • Memories are hard to retrieve due to interference from other memories • Two types: Proactive and Retroactive

  7. Proactive Interference • When an OLD memory interferes with remembering NEW information Tuesday PM- Look for car in North Lot Monday- park in North lot Tuesday AM- park in East lot

  8. Retroactive Interference • When a NEW memory interferes with remembering OLD information Try to recall old number, but can only recall new number Old phone number New phone number

  9. Source Amnesia • The attribution of a memory to an incorrect source. Example: This American Life

  10. Failure during Retrieval • “tip of the tongue” phenomenon • Often cues can help us remember

  11. Amnesia • Memory disorder produced by brain injury or illness. • retrograde amnesia =the loss of memory for events that occurred before the amnesia onset. • anterograde amnesia = the inability to form new memories after the amnesia onset. Retrograde amnesia Anterograde amnesia Point of Onset (Injury)

  12. Other types of Amnesia: • Infantile Amnesia • Psychogenic Amnesia • Repression = Freudian term, the ‘pushing’ of traumatic memories or emotions into the unconscious mind • Does it exist?

  13. Recovered Memories • ‘Believers’: • painful memories can be accurately stored in the unconscious and may surface in form of other disorder (e.g. depression) • by recovering memories of trauma, healing can begin

  14. Recovered Memories • ‘Skeptics’: • no evidence for ‘repression’ mechanism • many traumatic episodes are not forgotten • why do some repress and others don’t? • therapeutic techniques used are questionable

  15. Recovered Memories • Loftus and Pickrell (1995)- ‘Lost in a Mall’ study • Successfully implanted false memory of being lost in a mall in 25% of subjects • Some subjects provided details

  16. Recovered Memories • APA’s viewpoint: • Most people who are abused as children remember most of what happened to them. • One can construct false memories for events that never happened. • Sometimes a memory of childhood abuse might be forgotten and remembered later.

  17. The Bottom Line Memory is a RECONSTRUCTIVE process, and confidence is NOT correlated with accuracy.

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