1. Memory Failure Why do we forget?

2. Retrieval Failure Some memories may still be encoded, but we fail to retrieve them Retrieval cues can sometimes help access these memories by giving us a clue Examples: Mnemonic devices My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

3. Retrieval Cues Activity Please follow the directions

4. Retrieval Cues Specific retrieval cues, like those in our exercise, can aid memory General retrieval cues can help too – this is called priming and is not part of conscious thought Research has indicated that all sorts of things can affect our recall, from our mood to our location

5. Research on Priming (location) Situational priming: experiment by Godden & Baddeley (1975) had 2 groups scuba divers listen to a list of words: group 1 listened 10 feet underwater, group 2 listened on the beach. When the divers were retested, divers recalled about 35% of words from the same context, but only about 20% if the context was switched for recall

6. Forgetting in other stages Encoding failure: we cannot remember what we fail to encode  Absent mindedness, not paying attention Storage failure: memories naturally decay over time - Transience.  “The forgetting curve”: initial forgetting is rapid, but levels off with time.

7. Forgetting in the memory stages Retrieval failure: cues may help information if pathway is lost or blocked  New information can interfere with recall of previously stored information; e.g., pulling up Spanish vocab while trying to learn French  Some researchers believe this is the primary cause of forgetfulness: information is not lost, it is written over or confused with other information We forget more while awake than while asleep

8. Recovering Memory Some evidence suggests that brain exercises in general may aid memory retrieval APFCC the Tsai (2008) study referenced in the video: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow /0301/02.html

9. Other problems with memory Suggestibility  External cues distort or create memories  Misinformation – we accept wrong suggestions as true Misattribution / Source Amnesia: when we remember the fact but not where it came from  E.g., telling a story as though you were there or it happened to you  When we encode memories, the source gets encoded separately from the information and often is lost

10. Other problems with memory Bias – your current beliefs shape your memories. (“I never trusted him.”)