AP Psych - Forgetting & Other Memory Challenges

forgetting curve

forgetting something rapidly after learning it

will need retrieval clues to access it

encoding failure

proactive interference

reverting back to old memories when 2 memories are similar

ex. getting a new phone number but reverting to the old one 

retroactive interference

new memories disrupting old memories

ex. teachers forgetting the names of lat year’s students when learning names of new students

tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

temporary inability to recall information from memory, despite having partial recall

retrieval failure rather than forgetting

repression

suppressing traumatic events to protects us

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading info into a memory of an event

filling memory with gaps and plausible guesses

ex. being read a list of words associated with sleep, recalling them back with the word sleep included when it was not in the original list

source amnesia

attributing the wrong source to an event we experienced, heard, read, or imagined 

ex. thinking something happened to you but it actually happened in a netflix show 

constructive memory 

memories are personal constructs

memories are partially belief based and biased

imagination inflation

imagining something—believe that it actually happened