Forgetting & Memory Distortion

Storage Decay

Forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time. Must use them or lose them

Ebbinghaus Forgetting curve

As time elapses, you will lose your memory, but as you continue to review the material, you tend to lose less and less of what you learned, mastering that concept.

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

Greatest forgetting within 1st day after learning.

After initial steep drop off, curve levels off

Rehearsal

Maintenance and elaborative

Overlearning

process of continued rehearsal of material even after you have mastered it.

Distributed Practice

Learning by spreading out studying and doing a little bit each night rather than one long cramming session

Massed Practice

Learning in one long, intense period without breaks

Proactive Interference

Old disrupts new; old information gets in the way of new information.

Proactive = Previous disrupts new

Retroactive Interference

New disrupts old, new info gets in the way of old info

Retroactive = recent disrupts old

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event

Repression

In psychology, it refers to the unconscious mechanism by which the mind prevents certain thoughts, memories, or feelings from entering conscious awareness. It is a defence mechanism proposed by Sigmund Freud to protect the individual from potentially distressing or threatening information.

Anterograde Amnesia

No new memories, no events after the incidence of trauma or the onset of the disease that caused the amnesia

Antero=After

Retrograde Amnesia

No old memories, no events before the incidents of trauma or the onset of the disease that caused the amnesia

Retro=Before

Infantile Amnesia

The inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of three to four years

Source Amnesia

a memory error where you remember a fact or event (the content) but forget where, when, or from whom you learned it, leading to potential misattribution like believing you experienced something you only heard about.