Forgetting
Sanu Balan K LLB, MSW, [Link] PSW
Meaning
Refer to the apparent loss of information already
encoded and stored in long term memory
Interference
Learning new things interferes with our
memory of what we learned earlier and prior
learning interferes with our memory of things
learned later
Retroactive interference
Memory interference resulting from activities
that came after or subsequent to the events
you are trying to remember
Proactive Interference
Interference due to the events that came
before the to be remembered information
Trace Decay Theory
Learning causes change in the central nervous
system leading to the formation of memory
traces-physical change in the brain due to
learning. When these memory traces are not
used for a long time, they fade away leading to
forgetting
Repression
➔ Repression - Psychoanalysis- Sigmund
Freud
➔ Refers to the tendency of people to have
difficulty retrieving anxiety provoking or
threatening information from Long term
memory
Amnesia
➔ Refers to loss of memory
➔ Biological and psychological Amnesia
➔ Biological amnesia - the Brain is disturbed
Psychological Amnesias
Childhood AMnesia
Dream Amnesia
Defense Amnesia
Childhood Amnesia
❏ Three explanation
❏ Repression concept by Freud
❏ Differences in young children and older
people encode and store information
❏ Maturation of brain
Repression
Unable to retrieve childhood memories because
they are associated with the forbidden guilt
arousing sexual and aggressive urges
➔ Differences in young children and older
people encode and store information
➔ Young children : encode in non verbal forms
➔ Adults : memory is encoded verbally and tied
into networks , or schemata, that are based
on language
Maturation of brain
➔ Brain is maturing in the first few years of
birth
➔ Memory machine is just not able to store
long term memories until its maturation is
essentially finished
Dream Amnesia
➔ Dreams are forgotten
➔ Freud’s dream interpretation - based on
repression
➔ Differences in symbol system used in
dreaming and waking
Defensive Amnesia
Way of protecting oneself from the guilt or anxiety
that can result from intense , intolerable life
situations and conflicts
➔ Amnestic episodes can last for weeks, months
or years
➔ The amnesiac regain the memories suddenly
Information stored during the episode is
usually not retrievable - memory gap
Biologological Amnesias
Transient global Amnesia
Diseases of the brain
Transient global amnesia
❏ Profound memory problem with no loss of
consciousness
❏ Typically lasts for only few hours or days
before memory comes again
❏ Global ?? so much of what has already been
stored in memory is forgotten
❏ No new memories are not formed during the
episode
❏ Both retrograde and anterograde amnesia
characterise transient global amnesia
❏ Retrograde : Past events
❏ Anterograde : storage of new information
Precipitated by particularly strenuous activity,
high-stress events
Due to temporary alterations in the normal
pattern of blood flow to brain
Diseases of Brain
Senile dementia
➔ Senile refers to old age
➔ Characterized by deficits in many intellectual
abilities - memory, attention, judgement and
abstract thought
➔ Personality changes - excessive dependence
and irritability
➔ General orientation can also affected
➔ Largely anterograde : has trouble
remembering events after the onset of the
illness
➔ Usually the result of a reduction in blood flow to
brain
➔ Arteriosclerosis - narrowing of small arteries of
the brain
➔ deprives brain cells of adequate supplies of
oxygen and nutrients
➔
➔ Some cells die and others malfunction
➔ Brain is said to be to atrophy
Primary degenerative amnesia
Major difference - symptoms often begin in the
middle age
Alzheimer's disease- form in which there is
cluster of specific degenerative brain changes
of unknown origin
mnemonics
➔ Methods or techniques of enhancing memory
➔ Two categories of mnemonics
1. Mnemonics Using Images
2. Mnemonics Using Organisation
Mnemonics Using Images
Method of Loci
Loci - the plural form of “Locus”- refers to
position or place
uses the location of a familiar place as a cue
to retrieve information
Ex: Making list for grocery by locating them
in the kitchen
Keyword method
➔ considered appropriate for learning
vocabulary and foreign language
➔ any two pieces of information are linked
using images.
Mnemonics Using Organisation
Chunking
➔ The storage capacity of STM can be
increased by the process “ Chunking”
➔ Memorization method that begins with
distilling large pieces of information into
smaller pieces or chunks
First Letter Technique
The first letter of each word, you want to
memorise, is taken to make a meaningful word
or sentence
VIBGYOR
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