Types and Theories of Memory and Forgetting

Amnesia

the loss of memory.

Infantile amnesia

the inability to remember anything before the age of 3.

Retrograde amnesia

the inability to remember anything after specific brain surgery or an accident.

Anterograde amnesia

the inability to form new memories after specific brain surgery or an accident.

Forgetting Curve

most information that you learn is lost within 9 hours of learning it and almost completely forgotten within 1 day.

Distributive practice

working to retain information over time, not cramming it all in during one session, that produces better long-term recall.

Massed/Cramming practice

cramming that can produce speedy short-term learning and feelings of confidence.

Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon

knowing the answer but not being able to retrieve it.

Proactive interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information; forward-acting.

Retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information; backward-acting.

Positive transfer

when old information can facilitate our learning of new information, such as knowing Latin to help learn French.

Serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.

Primacy effect

information at the beginning of a list is remembered better than material in the middle.

Recency effect

information at the end of a list is remembered better than the material in the middle.

Schacter's 7 Sins of Forgetting

the causes of forgetting.

Absent-mindedness

inattention to details leads to encoding failure.

Transience

storage decay over time.

Tip of the Tongue

temporary inaccessibility of stored information.

Source Amnesia

confusing the source of information.

Suggestibility

the lingering effects of misinformation.

Bias

belief-colored recollections.

Persistence

unwanted memories.

Misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.

Mandela Effect

the spontaneous narrative report of events that never happened.

Constructive Memories

memories that did not actually happen.

Imagination Inflation

a type of constructive memory where the created memory stems from imagining an event.

Testing Effect

A memory enhancement technique in which you study a little, then test your retention of the material.