Memory and Forgetting

Defined by Ulrich Neisser as memories for distinct events.
Examples:
- 9/11: Most adults at the time remember exactly where they were.
- COVID-19: The moment school shutdowns were announced.
- Assassination of JFK: Boomers remember hearing about it in class.
- Space Shuttle Challenger explosion: Gained media attention because a civilian (a school teacher) was on board; many people watched live and remember it distinctly.
Flashbulb memories are vivid but not necessarily accurate.
- Study on Challenger explosion: Students asked the day after the event. Three years later, half recalled details incorrectly.
- Study on 9/11: Seven weeks after 9/11, 73% of students claimed to have seen the video of the first plane hitting the tower on September 11, but it was impossible because the video wasn't broadcast until after.
  - Those who claimed to have seen the impossible video were most confident in their accuracy.

Context-dependent memory: Recall is better when the context matches the encoding context.
- Example: Scuba divers recalling a list of items either while scuba diving or on land.
Response renewal: Training in one context, extinction in another, leads to the behavior returning in the original context.
Encoding Specificity Principle: Memory is enhanced when retrieval conditions match encoding conditions.

State-dependent memory: Recall is influenced by the state of consciousness.
- Example: Recall may be better if you've had a couple of drinks during both encoding and recall, compared to being sober during encoding and drinking only during recall. Too many drinks will impair recall.
Mood-congruent recall: Happy moods facilitate recall of happy events; sad moods facilitate recall of sad events.
- Implications for depression: Negative affect can create a loop of recalling other instances that caused sadness.

Studied by Hermann Ebbinghaus, who used himself as a subject.
- Created lists of nonsense syllables (e.g., "pdzed") to avoid semantic meaning.
- Tested his ability to recall items after various delays.
Ebbinghaus discovered the forgetting curve: Memory decays over time.
- Initially, memory is strong, but it weakens as the delay increases.
Forgetting isn't necessarily loss of information, but a failure in one of three stages:
- Encoding
- Consolidation (storage)
- Retrieval
Example: Loonie experiment: People struggle to identify the correct details of a Canadian loonie, even though they have seen it many times. We don't encode all the details.

Decay: Memory trace fades over time (Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve).
Interference: Other information interferes with recall.
- Proactive interference: Old information interferes with new information.
  - Example: Memorizing an old phone number makes it harder to remember a new phone number.
- Retroactive interference: New information interferes with old information.
  - Example: Memorizing a new phone number makes it harder to remember the old one.

Repression: The idea that traumatic memories are unconsciously blocked to protect the individual (Freudian theory).
- Controversial; more evidence supports PTSD, where traumatic memories are intrusive.
Hypnotism: Discovered by Mesmer (who called it mesmerism and attributed it to "animal magnetism") in the late 1700s. He used it to "heal" people, especially during social events for the French aristocracy.
- Involves a state of heightened attention or suggestibility.
- Value in clinical treatment is controversial, especially for memory retrieval.
- Memories retrieved under hypnosis may be inaccurate.
- Has been used to treat chronic pain or help people quit smoking.

Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new long-term memories after the onset of amnesia.
- Example: Patient H.M., who had his hippocampus removed and could not create new memories.
Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memory for events prior to the onset of amnesia.
- Often depicted in movies where a person loses their past memories.
Childhood Amnesia: Inability to remember events from the first three or four years of life.
- Explanation: The limbic system and hippocampus is underdeveloped during early childhood.
Dementia/Alzheimer's Disease: Characterized by forgetfulness and confusion.
- Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia in older adults (65+).
- Sundowning: Confusion becomes more pronounced at dusk.
- Affects the subcortical temporal lobe regions and hippocampus, and spreads to the frontal lobe.
- Involves plaques and tangles in the brain, particularly abnormal tau protein, which impedes nutrient mobility.

Elizabeth Loftus's work:
- Judgments of car speed in a video depend on the verb used in the question (Loftus and Palmer study).
  - "Smashed" elicits higher speed estimates than "hit", "bumped", etc.
- Memories are reconstructions and can be altered by new information.
Misinformation Effect: Memories are never a perfect recall of an event, and new information can reshape the memory based on those details.
"Lost in the mall" technique: Researchers successfully implanted false memories of being lost in a shopping mall in 25% of participants.
Eyewitness testimony is unreliable.
DNA testing has revealed the fallibility of eyewitness accounts.
Police Interrogation Techniques: Can unintentionally embed false memories.
- Precautions are needed when interviewing children, who are especially susceptible.

Transience: Memories degrade over time.
Absentmindedness: Insufficient attention during encoding leads to memory lapses.
Blocking: Temporary inability to retrieve a memory (e.g., "tip of the tongue").
Misattribution: Memory is present but attributed to the wrong source.
- Misattribution of faces, facts, imagination vs. reality.
Suggestibility: Memories are susceptible to change from outside forces.
Bias: Current feelings color memories of the past.
Persistence: Unwanted memories persistently intrude on one's thoughts (e.g., traumatic events). Can lead to phobias or PTSD.