Forgetting is defined as the loss of information from long-term memory. This is a universal human experience, manifesting in everyday situations like forgetting a name, a birthday, or the location of personal items like car keys. Such memory failures, while common, can be a source of frustration and embarrassment, underscoring the fragile nature of human memory.

Forgetting

- 1) Chemical processes
- 2) Neurons activated
- 3) Brain storage
- 4) Storage activated
- 5) Memory
- 6) Output

Levels of output for memory

A central question within the realm of memory research is whether retaining information over short periods of time versus longer periods of time (whether minutes or weeks) is different. In 1890, William James distinguished “primary memory,” composed of past experiences that are active within consciousness, from “secondary memory,” composed of experiences that are not stored at the conscious level but can be recalled. James believed there to be limits to how much information is available in primary memory. Research has generally demonstrated that 7 ± 2 items can be stored at once in a person’s mind, but also that “recoding” items using past knowledge (for example, breaking longer strings into smaller recognizable pieces) can increase memory capacity.

Primary vs. Secondary Memories

While the implicit/explicit, semantic/episodic, and familiarity/recollection distinctions are founded partly on subjective experience, other researchers have instead explored what types of information promote learning retention.

Distinction Between Types of Information Supporting Memory

After being exposed to a stimuli, subjects are asked to report back what they observed.

Recall

Small units (i.e. words, actions) can be grouped together based on associations to form larger units that are easy to remember.

Chunking

Memory depends on the depth of processing information (how much meaning) that occurs. 

Levels of Processing theory

- The Modal Model
- Baddeley & Hitch's Working Memory Model

Memory models

Among many theories, there is consensus surrounding the understanding that medial temporal lobe damage only harms certain types of memory and learning, leaving repetition priming, classical conditioning, and reinforcement-learning largely untouched. Many models also agree about organization of the medial temporal lobe.

Consensus About the Medial Temporal Lobe Among Memory Theories

The process of trying to find the origins of a memory, belief, or knowledge. For example you may be trying to determine whether it was from a friend, a book, or news story.

Source monitoring

It is the mechanism through which the structure of the brain is "shaped" by environments to better perceive environments.

Experience-dependent plasticity 

- Brain damage
- Evolution (errors seen in the general population)

Causes of memory errors and impairment

A learning task that requires a considerable but desirable amount of effort, thereby improving long-term performance.

Examples:

- Interleaving Materials
- Spacing Studying
- Generation Effect
- Retrieval practice (testing)
- Varying Study Conditions

Desirable Difficulties

In neutral emotional circumstances, confidence in the memory and accuracy have a positive relationship. However, in an angry emotional state, the confidence-accuracy relationship becomes negative (as people become more confident, it is predicted that their accuracy will decrease).

The Confidence-accuracy relationship

Prospective memory is the term for the type of memory associated with forward-thinking, initiation of planned events, & retention. Retrospective memory is attributed to one's ability to recall experiences and their contexts (i.e. episodic) in hindsight. It most critically plays a role in remembering events or ideas from the past.

Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

Memories are a reconstructive process, meaning they are not some recordings of past experiences, but a recreation influenced by the present. They comprised of what happened in events and prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences. This contrasts with what some may think about memories being solely representations of events.

Constructive Nature of Memory

- Proactive interference
- Retroactive interference

Types of Memory Interference

Despite the known fragility of human memory, the legal system, including police, prosecutors, and courts, often depends heavily on eyewitness testimony for criminal prosecutions. This reliance is problematic because memory is a reconstructive process, making eyewitness accounts susceptible to errors that can lead to faulty identifications and, ultimately, wrongful convictions.

Eyewitness Testimony and its Unreliability

- Memory models
- Forgetting
- The stages of memory
- Levels of analysis
- Levels of Processing 
- Interference
- Chunking
- Recall
- Constructive nature of memory
- Primary vs. Secondary memories
- Types of information supporting memory
- Memory errors and impairment
- Source monitoring
- Eyewitness testimony
- Experience-dependent plasticity
- Desirable difficulties
- Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Henry Ford College

Information and knowledge encoded into the brain to be retrieved 

Memory

Ranganath, C., Libby, A. L., & Wong, L. (2012). Human learning and memory. The Cambridge handbook of cognitive science, 112-130.

Ranganath, C., Libby, A. L., & Wong, L. (2012). Human learning and memory

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Focuses of Research on Memory

Ranganath, Libby, and Wong (2012) explain that memory research perhaps began with Hermann Ebbinghaus’ research in the late 1800s, into his ability to memorize random syllables. His most important contributions were in the realm of methodology for experimental study of memory. Frederick Bartlett’s work in the 1930s surrounding memory of meaningful material like literary quotes demonstrated that recall of information does not happen verbatim, but rather as an “imaginative construction” comprised of pieces recalled reconstructed with inferences which fill in blanks in the memory.  Brenda Milner’s later work with people suffering from amnesia provided evidence that brain damage in certain areas could make formation of new memories difficult while not harming the development of new skills in other areas. The approaches taken by these researchers set the foundation for subsequent neuroscience studies into the purposes of different areas of the brain in memory.

Initiation of Memory Research

• Prospective Memory (PM)
• Retrospective Memory (RM)

Types of Memory

A student studies for an exam by passively re-reading their notes for several hours. The next day, they recognize the questions on the exam but cannot recall the specific answers. Based on the fundamental processes of memory, which stage was most likely the weakest, leading to this failure?

Based on the fundamental process of how information is encoded, stored, and later retrieved, analyze the student's situation. What are the potential breakdowns in the memory process that could explain why the student was unable to recall the specific details during the exam, despite their effort?

Analyzing a Memory Failure

Which of the following best defines the concept of memory in psychology?

Individuals are vulnerable to the power of suggestion, which can influence them simply based on something they see on the news or a suggestion someone else has made.

Power of Suggestion

Unintended cues and suggestions provided by police officers during investigations can significantly influence a witness's recollection and confidence. For instance, if an officer reinforces a witness's uncertain choice during a photo selection or lineup, it can inadvertently lead the witness to identify the wrong suspect.

Unintended Police Cues and Eyewitness Misidentification

Investigators must proceed with caution when interviewing eyewitnesses to a crime, as law enforcement procedures can inadvertently implant false memories or mislead the witness. Practices such as showing police line-ups or pushing a witness to create a composite sketch can corrupt an eyewitness's memory, which may hinder the investigation and prevent cases from being resolved.

Eyewitness Memory Corruption

The specific wording used in leading questions can alter a person's memory of an event. Loftus and Palmer demonstrated this by showing that participants who heard cars 'smashed' estimated higher speeds than those who heard 'contacted.' Furthermore, the 'smashed' group was more likely to falsely remember seeing broken glass a week later, indicating that implied information can encourage false memories.

Effect of Leading Questions on Memory

Individuals can falsely recall complete events, rather than just isolated words or details, even when those events never actually occurred.

False Recall of Events

The concept that memories of traumatic events can be repressed is a significant theme in psychology that originated with Sigmund Freud.

Repression of Traumatic Memories

Elizabeth Loftus has challenged the idea that individuals can repress memories of traumatic events from childhood, including sexual abuse, and then recover those memories years later through therapeutic techniques such as hypnosis, guided visualization, and age regression.

Loftus's Challenge to Repressed Memories

The process of questioning an individual about past events can inadvertently alter their recall. Because memory is highly susceptible to even the slightest suggestions, therapeutic or investigative questioning can lead to misinformation effects, raising doubts about the accuracy of the accessed memories.

Misinformation Effects in Questioning

Effortful encoding is the process of intentionally paying attention to details and actively working to process information so that it can be stored in memory and remembered later.

Effortful Encoding

A well-known memory researcher and psychologist who proposed the seven sins of memory, which categorizes the ways our memories fail us into forgetting, distortion, and intrusion.

Daniel Schacter

A line graph representing the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows the relationship between elapsed time since learning and memory retention percentages. The data demonstrates a rapid initial decline in retention that eventually levels off. The approximate data points are: 100% retention at 0 minutes, 55% at 20 minutes, 40% at 60 minutes, 37% at 9 hours, 30% at 24 hours, 25% at 48 hours, 20% at 6 days, and 10% at 31 days.

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