1. Forgetting, Memory Construction and Memory Improvement

2. Are there advantages to forgetting stuff. What would the hassles be of not being able to forget anything?

3. Amnesia Retrograde Amnesia Those who cannot remember their past “Retro” means going backward, like a retro look for a party Anterograde Amnesia Those who cannot form new, explicit memories but implicit, automatic memory not affected.

4. Two-track Mind Case studies about these two types of amnesia confirm we have two distinct memory systems, controlled by different parts of the brain. Forgetting for most of us is quite a bit less dramatic. There can be problems with Encoding Storage Retrieval

5. Encoding Failure Much of what we sense we never notice What we fail to encode, we don’t remember Encoding slows with age, so age can affect encoding

6. Encoding Failure

9. Retrieval Cues Sometimes it helps to have some sort of stimulus to help us remember. This is called a Retrieval Cue. Priming Context Dependent State Dependent Encoding Specificity

10. Storage Decay Even after encoding something well, we sometimes later forget it. Herman Ebbinghaus conducted research in this area.

11. Storage Decay

12. Retrieval Failure Often forgetting isn’t memories faded but memories unretrieved. Sometimes important memories defy our attempt to retrieve them. Retrieval cues may help. Such as “It begins with an M.”

13. Retrieval Failure

16. Interference As you collect more and more information your mental attic gets cluttered. Sometimes your clutter interferes as new learning collides with old. Proactive Interference Proactive Interference is the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information. Retroactive Interference Retroactive Interference is the disruptive effect new learning has on the recall of old information.

18. Interference Information learned in the hour before sleep is protected from retroactive interference. Old and new information do not always interfere with each other – sometimes it actually helps.

19. Forgetting can occur at any stage. As we process information, we filter, alter, or lose much of it.

20. Memory Construction Errors Misinformation Effect: Misinformation Effect: incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event. Source Amnesia: Source Amnesia: attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. Déjà vu: Déjà vu: Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger revival of an earlier event.

21. Memory Construction Errors False memories can be very persistent.

23. Children’s Recall How reliable are young children’s eyewitness descriptions,