Retrieval and Forgetting

Lecture - Thursday, but it is a continuation of Tuesday's notes about Memory. Professor Ross/Rogers - 10/15/26 (Memory Notes - 10/13/26 on Tuesday)

Retrieval: Cues

Recall, Recognition, Encoding Specificity, and Context - Dependent Memory.

Recall

Memories are retrieved with few or no cues (e.g., essay exams; Remembering someone’s name).

Recognition

Identify previously learned information based on cues (e.g., multiple-choice exams; Recognizing faces).

Encoding Specificity

Information present at the time of encoding tends to be a good retrieval cue (e.g., Professors sometimes find it difficult to recognize students outside of the classroom).

Context - Dependent Memory

Retrieval is better when in the same context as when the memory was initially encoded (e.g., Physical space; psychological state).

Retrieval: Serial Position Effect

Tendency for information at the beginning and end of a list to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle (Primacy and Recency Effect). Information is still in STM.

Primacy Effect

Better recall for information at the beginning of a list.

Recency Effect

Better recall for information at the end of a list.

Retrieval: Special Cases

Autobiographical Memories and Flashbulb Memories.

Autobiographical Memories

Memories of one’s own life experiences (e.g., episodic memories).

Ex:

Older adults remember their teens and 20s well (Reminiscence Bump).

Flashbulb Memories

Very vivid and relatively accurate memory for an event (episode).

Usually strong emotional associations. People rehearse and elaborate more than usual.

Retrieval: Reconstruction

People tend to be overconfident about the accuracy of their memories (memories are NOT saved files). We encode the “gist” or the general idea of a memory. When we try to retrieve a memory, we “re-build” or reconstruct the memory.

Reconstructive Processing

Memories are altered, revised, or influenced by newer information.

Ex: Researchers asked people “How fast was the car going when it ___ into the other car?” and changed what verb they used. (Smashed, Collided, Bumped, Hit, and Contacted)

Later asked if there was broken glass during the scene and if people dashed past the stop sign.

• People said yes if they were told (I think) Smashed or Collided, while the other words were unsure or weren’t certain about their answer.

Other-Race-Effect

The phenomenon whereby people are better at recognizing and remembering faces of their own race compared to the faces of other races.

Eyewitness testimony carries tremendous weight among jurors. However, much eyewitness testimony is distorted, inaccurate, and/or biased.

Forgetting: Encoding Failure

Information never really entered LTM. More accurately ‘never knowing’ rather than ‘forgetting.’

Forgetting: Retrieval Failure

Information is not properly retrieved from LTM. (Interference, Proactive Interference, Retroactive Interference, Decay, and Memory Trace)

Usually we can remember some characteristics about the information (e.g., first letter, number of syllables).

We get “hooked” on these retrieval cues. More likely to recall information by abandoning effortful retrieval and thinking about something else.

Ex: The Office’s KitKat Commercial - Andy Bernard couldn’t remember the last part of the line of the song “Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that ‘dundundun’” - where essentially he keeps trying to find the right words for that blank of memory, but fails at the end.

Interference

Information is in LTM, but other information gets in the way of retrieving it.

Proactive Interference

Tendency for older information to interfere with retrieval of new information.

Retroactive Interference

Tendency for new information to interfere with retrieval of old information.

Decay

Loss of memory due to the passage of time in which the memory was not used (Use it or Lose it).

Memory Trace

Physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed.

Over time, if these traces are not used (i.e., the memory is not retrieved), then they may change toward other connections or decay.

Retrospective Memory

Remembering things from the past. (What has been talked about during class)

Prospective Memory (Intentions)

Remembering to do something in the future.

Forget when we get preoccupied or distracted by something else (Cognitive Load).

Ex: Needing to get batteries for your electrical toothbrush, yet had to socialize, go to class, go get food, etc., and at the end of the day where you go brush your teeth, you realize you forgot to get the thing you needed.