Forgetting Theories

Outline:

.Forgetting- when memory fails

- Interference theory
- proactive interference
- retroactive interference
 Interference
Information in memory disrupts the recall of
other information.

 for example: in decay, the old books are

constantly crumbling and rotting away, leaving
room for new arrivals. But in interference, the
new books knock the old ones off the shelf
where they become inaccessible.
Types of interferences

i- Proactive interference

ii- Retroactive interference

Proactive Interference
 Type of interference in which
information learned earlier disrupts
the recall of newer information.

 It progresses in time i.e. the past

interferes with the present.
Retroactive Interference
 Interference in which there is
difficulty in the recall of information
learned earlier because of later
exposure to different material.
 It retrogresses in time, working

backward as the present interferes

with the past.
Diagram for proactive interference
Proactive
interference
Study Sindhi Study Urdu Take Urdu test

time

Urdu test performance will be

impaired by study of Sindhi…
Diagram for retroactive interference
interference

Take Sindhi
Study Sindhi Study Urdu test

time

Sindhi test performance

impaired
by study of Urdu.
The Motivated Forgetting Theory suggests
that people forget things because they do not
want to remember them or for a certain
reason.
This is not the same as amnesia, which is a term
for any instance in which memories are either not
stored in the first place (such as with traumatic
head injuries when short term memory does not
transfer to long term memory) or forgotten.
According to the theory's proponents,
repressed memories may sometimes be
recovered years or decades after the event,
most often spontaneously, triggered by a
particular smell, taste, or other identifier related
to the lost memory, or via suggestion during
psychotherapy.
History

The concept was originated by Sigmund Freud

in his 1896 essay Zur Ätiologie der Hysterie
("On the etiology of hysteria").Freud
abandoned his theory between 1897 and 1905,
replacing it during 1920-1923 with his impulse-
based concept of Ego, super-ego, and id.
 Theory

It has been speculated that repression may be one

method used by individuals to cope with traumatic
memories, by pushing them out of awareness (perhaps
as an adaptation via psychogenic amnesia) to allow a
child to maintain attachment to a person on whom they
are dependent for survival/. Researchers have proposed
that repression can operate on a social level as well
Controversy

The existence of repressed memory recovery has not

been completely accepted by mainstream
psychology,nor unequivocally proven to exist, and
some experts in the field of human memory feel that
no credible scientific support exists for the notions of
repressed/recovered memories.One research report
states that a distinction should be made between
spontaneously recovered memories and memories
recovered during suggestions in therapy
DECAY THEORY
INTORDUCTION:

 Decay theory is also known as

deterioration theory which states
that with the passage of time the past
learning's of people fade away if they
do not practice the learning's
frequently. It states that the memory
is physically no longer present.
Cont..
However experiments have not been able to prove
this theory correct and thus it is only taken as an
interesting possibility because of two reasons:
 Under certain circumstances the old memories
become unforgettable because they might be
related to shocks and physical assaults then the
recent memories.
 Most scientists believe that neurons , die off
gradually as we age. We start out with over 100
billion neurons. However, recent experiments
show that new brain cells do grow in some parts
of the brain to replace the dying ones.
EXPERIMENT:
 The most famous classic study done in this field
was the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve by H.
Ebbinghaus (1885). This was one of the earliest
studies done in the field of Psychology. H.
Ebbinghaus used himself as subject. He invented
nonsense syllables (e.g. BLF, MXW, ...), learned
lists of them and then tested his memory after
various time intervals. He found that forgetting was
very quick just after learning (>50% in the first
hour) and then leveled off. The graph of retention
and forgetting is known as the Ebbinghaus curve.
EBBINGHAUS CURVE: