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Theories of Forgetting
From not remembering where we left our keys to forgetting the name of
a person we’ve just met, memory failures are a daily occurrence. But
why do they happen? Not everyone has the same answer. Psychologists
and neuroscientists have developed five theories of forgetting that
attempt to explain why our memories get foggy or slip away from us
entirely.

What Are the Five Theories of

Forgetting?
Throughout the years, psychologists have created five theories of
forgetting in an attempt to explain how and why memories slip from our
minds. Not all of these theories are still accepted. Some were even
created in response to theories that came before them! Some can easily
be true alongside other theories of forgetting. All these theories will make
you think about the mysterious nature of forgetting information.

The five theories of forgetting include:

• Displacement theory
• Trace decay theory
• Interference theory
• Retrieval failure theory
• Consolidation theory
Theory #1: Displacement Theory of
Forgetting
The displacement theory describes how forgetting works in short-term
memory. Short-term memory has a limited capacity and can only hold a
small amount of information—up to about seven items—at one time.
Once the memory is full, new information will replace the old one.

There seems to be no one figurehead of this theory, but many

psychologists have contributed to experiments and studies that support
it. Free recall method studies often support the idea of the displacement
theory of forgetting. This theory is pretty solid and has stood the test of
time.

Displacement theory plays neatly into the Multi-Store Model of Memory.

This model shows that while some information reaches long-term
memory, other pieces of information in short-term memory storage are
simply forgotten. What pieces of information are displaced? Keep on
reading.

Serial Position Effect

In studies based on the free-recall method, participants are asked to
listen to a list of words and then try to remember them. The free recall
method, unlike the serial recall method, allows participants to remember
words in no particular order. Through these studies, psychologists have
discovered that the first and the last items on a list are the easiest ones
to remember. They named this phenomenon the Serial Position Effect.
Two other effects, the primacy and recency effects, explain why the first
and last items are so crucial in memory.

The primacy effect suggests that recalling the first item on the list is
simple. At the time they are presented, these initial words don’t yet
compete with the subsequent ones for a place in the short-term
memory.

The recency effect explains why the participants remember items at the
end of the list. These words have not yet been suppressed from short-
term memory. The words in the middle of the list, pushed out from the
short-term memory by the last words, are much less likely to be recalled.
Examples of the Displacement Theory of
Forgetting
Suppose you have just learned a seven-digit phone number when you
are given another number to memorize. Your short-term memory doesn’t
have the capacity to store both information. In order to recall the new
phone number, you’ll have to forget the first one. This isn’t always a
conscious process, but it can be. The moment you begin to focus on the
new set of numbers, the first one seems to “go away” or get confused
with the new numbers you are learning.

Another example of the displacement theory of forgetting involves

grocery lists. As you walk out the door to the grocery store, your partner
tells you that you need to buy “milk, eggs, cheese, flour, and sugar.” You
try to memorize the whole list, but a lot of it goes away while you are
driving to the store. When you arrive, all you can remember is “milk” and
“sugar.”

Theory #2: Trace Decay Theory of

Forgetting
The trace decay theory was formed by American psychologist Edward
Thorndike in 1914, based on the early memory work by Hermann
Ebbinghaus. The theory states that if we don’t access memories, they
will fade over time.

When we learn something new, the brain undergoes neurochemical

changes called memory traces. Memory retrieval requires us to revisit
those traces that the brain formed when encoding the memory. The
trace decay theory implies that the length of time between the memory
and recalling determines whether we will retain or forget a piece of
information. The shorter the time interval, the more we will remember,
and vice versa.
Serial Probe Task
In 1965, Waugh and Norman put both displacement theory and trace
decay theories to the test. They put participants through a “serial probe
task.” Each participant listened to a long list of letters. Later, the
researchers would yell out one of the letters from the list, and the
participants would have to name the letter listed after. What they found
showed that displacement theory could explain some instances of
forgetting, but not all of them.

The interesting part of the results was that when the list was read at a
faster pace, participants completed the task more successfully.

Criticisms and Need for Other Theories of

Forgetting
The trace decay theory, however, doesn’t explain why many people can
clearly remember past events, even if they haven’t given them much
thought before. Neither does it take into account the role of all the events
that have taken place between the learning and the recall of the
memory. Just like the serial probe task suggests that displacement
theory is not “enough,” decay theory fails to cover all instances of
forgetting and remembering.

The interference theory concentrates precisely on the aspects of

forgetting that decay theory fails to address.

Theory #3: Interference Theory of

Forgetting
The interference theory was the dominant theory of forgetting throughout
the 20th century. It asserts that the ability to remember can be disrupted
both by our previous learning and by new information. In essence, we
forget because memories interfere with and disrupt one another. For
example, by the end of the week, we won’t remember what we ate for
breakfast on Monday because we had many other similar meals since
then.

The first study on interference was conducted by German psychologist

John A. Bergstrom in 1892. He asked participants to sort two decks of
word cards into two piles. When the location of one of the piles changed,
the first set of sorting rules interfered with learning the new ones, and
sorting became slower.

Proactive interference (Example)

Proactive interferences take place when old memories prevent making
new ones. This often occurs when memories are created in a similar
context or include near-identical items. Remembering a new code for the
combination lock might be more difficult than we expect. Our memories
of the old code interfere with the new details and make them harder to
retain.

Retroactive interference (Example)

Retroactive interferences occur when old memories are altered by new
ones. Just like with proactive interference, they often happen with two
similar sets of memories. Let’s say you used to study Spanish and are
now learning French. When you try to speak Spanish, the newly
acquired French words may interfere with your previous knowledge.

Theory #4: Retrieval Failure Theory of

Forgetting
The retrieval failure theory was developed by the Canadian psychologist
and cognitive neuroscientist Endel Tulving in 1974. According to this
theory, forgetting often involves a failure in memory retrieval. Although
the information stored in the long-term memory is not lost, we are unable
to retrieve it at a particular moment. A classic example is the tip of the
tongue effect when we are unable to remember a familiar name or word.

There are two main reasons for failure in memory retrieval. Encoding
failure prevents us from remembering information because it never made
it into long-term memory in the first place. Or the information may be
stored in long-term memory, but we can’t access it because we lack
retrieval cues.

Retrieval cues
A retrieval cue is a trigger that helps us remember something.

When we create a new memory, we also retain elements of the situation

in which the event occurred. These elements will later serve as retrieval
cues. Information is more likely to be retrieved from long-term memory
with the help of relevant retrieval cues. Conversely, retrieval failure or
cue-dependent forgetting may occur when we can’t access memory
cues.

Semantic cues
Semantic cues are associations with other memories. For example, we
might have forgotten everything about a trip we took years ago until we
remember visiting a friend in that place. This cue will allow recollecting
further details about the trip.

State-dependent cues
State-dependent cues are related to our psychological state at the time
of the experience, like being very anxious or extremely happy. Finding
ourselves in a similar state of mind may help us retrieve some old
memories.

Context-dependent cues
Context-dependent cues are environmental factors such as sounds,
sight, and smell. For instance, witnesses are often taken back to the
crime scene that contains environmental cues from when the memory
was formed. These cues can help recollect the details of the crime.

Theory #5: Consolidation Theory of

Forgetting
While the above theories of forgetting concentrate principally on
psychological evidence, the consolidation theory is based on the
physiological aspects of forgetting. Memory consolidation is the critical
process of stabilizing a memory and making it less susceptible to
disruptions. Once it is consolidated, memory is moved from short term to
a more permanent long-term storage, becoming much more resistant to
forgetting.

The term consolidation was coined by Georg Elias Muller and Alfons
Pilzecker in 1900. The two German psychologists were also the first to
explain the theory of retroactive interference, newly learned material
interfering with the retrieval of the old one, in terms of consolidation.

Memory consolidation refers to the process by which a temporary, labile

memory is transformed into a more stable, long-lasting form. Memory
consolidation was first proposed in 1900 (Müller and Pilzecker
1900; Lechner et al. 1999) to accoünt for the phenomenon of retroactive
interference in hümans, that is, the finding that learned material remains
vülnerable to interference for a period of time after learning. Süpport for
consolidation was already available in the facts of retrograde amnesia,
especially as oütlined in the earlier writings of Ribot (1881). The key
observation was that recent memories are more vülnerable to injüry or
disease than remote memories, and the significance of this finding for
consolidation was immediately appreciated.

It is üsefül to note that the term consolidation has different

contemporary üsages that derive from the same historical soürces. For
example, the term is commonly üsed to describe events at the
synaptic/cellülar level (e.g., protein synthesis), which stabilize synaptic
plasticity within hoürs after learning

In contrast,Systems consolidation is typically, and accürately, described

as the process by which memories, initially dependent on the
hippocampüs, are reorganized as time passes. By this process, the
hippocampüs gradüally becomes less important for storage and retrieval,
and a more permanent memory develops in distribüted regions of the
neocortex.

Other Theories of Forgetting

These five theories are most frequently mentioned when discussing
forgetting, memory, and recall. Psychologists have devised other
theories that may be worth looking into. No one theory of forgetting
covers all incidences of memory loss and recall, so these theories are
valid, too!

Motivated Theory of Forgetting

Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the first psychologists to suggest that
people intentionally forgot their memories. Typically, these memories are
traumatic or shameful. This theory really took off when Freud expanded
upon this theory. Freud spoke more about the idea that
people unintentionally forgot their memories. This process is
called repression and is considered a defense mechanism. Freud,
however, believed he could recover repressed memories. Today,
psychologists mostly discredit this idea, as the mind can “change”
memories with leading questions and other methods. Still, this motivated
theory of forgetting is an important idea in the history of psychology.

Gestalt Theory of Forgetting

The Gestalt Theory of Forgetting attempts to explain how memories can
be forgotten through a process called distortion. This does not have to
be an intentional process, either. If memory is hazy or missing pieces of
information, the brain will fill in those pieces. The memory may feel
accurate but is actually distorted.

Which of these theories of forgetting is correct? Maybe all of them, in

their own ways!

Related Posts:
1. Proactive Interference (Definition + Examples)
2. Retroactive Interference (Definition + Examples)
3. Long Term Memory
4. Motivated Forgetting (Examples!)
5. Short Term Memory

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 MEMORY:

Memory
Free Memory Test
Serial Position Effect
Primacy Effect
Recency Effect
Short Term Memory
Sensory Memory
Working Memory
Long Term Memory
Episodic Memory
Semantic Memory
False Memories
Photographic Memory
Memory Tricks
Memory Palace
Rote Memorization
Atkinson and Shiffrin Model
Proactive Interference
Retroactive Interference
State Dependent Memory

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