Forgetting
- Created by: IrishEllie98
- Created on: 12-04-15 13:20
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- Forgetting
- Trace Decay
- Info that enters STM leaves a trace in the brain due to the excitation of nerve cells
- Neural activity dies down gradually unless material is rehearsed
- Engram that will be formed is delicate and liable to disruption because it is an active trace
- Hebb argued this happens whilst learning takes place
- With learning, it grows stronger until a permenant engram is formed
- Some researchers argue that if knowledge and skill are not used and not practiced then engram will decay
- Hebb argues that it only applies to STM
- when we rehearse material the corresponding neural activity causes a structural change in the brain
- Solso also concluded that there is no evidence that the major cause of forgetting in LTM is neurological decay
- Evaluation
- It is difficult to test - participants are tested at different time periods
- Could be rehearsing thus strengthening the trace
- if rehearsal is prevented then forgetting could be due to interference from task rather than decay of memory trace
- Waugh and Norman who set out to support trace decay concluded that interference is the most likely cause of forgetting in STM
- Trace decay theory has a difficulty dealing with situations where items which cannot be remembered at one time can spontaneously be remembered at another time without additional presentation of items
- If the trace has decayed it should never be available
- The experiment of Peterson and Peterson is used as evidence for the role of decay in STM
- Findings show that after 18 seconds the trace has almost completely decayed when rehearsal is prevented
- It is difficult to test - participants are tested at different time periods
- Info that enters STM leaves a trace in the brain due to the excitation of nerve cells
- Displacement Theory
- Explains forgetting from STM in terms of a limited capacity of this store
- There is a limited number of 'slots' in STM
- When the system is full the oldest material is 'pushed out' or displaced by incoming information
- Waugh and Norman - serial probe task - support displacement theory for forgetting
- later digits displaced earlier ones
- Evaluation
- seems to give an adequate account of forgetting from STM when applied to the MSM of memory
- Empirical evidence EG: Murdock - primacy/recency experimental findings - support theory
- More recent models of memory - EG: Working memory model have indicated that STM is much more complex than the unitary, limited capacity short-term store 1st proposed by Atkinson and Sheriffin's MSM of memory
- Interference Theory
- What occurs before, during and after learning
- At beginning of storage process, interference can prevent new info from passing STM to LTM.
- In LTM, as the store of info grows, there will be increasing interference between competing memories
- Two types of interference:
- Proactive
- where earlier learning interferes with what you are trying to learn at present
- EG: You have learnt Spanish and now you struggle learning French
- where earlier learning interferes with what you are trying to learn at present
- Retroactive
- where more recent learning interferes with the recall of earlier material
- EG: You know your present phone number but not your previous one
- where more recent learning interferes with the recall of earlier material
- Proactive
- Evaluation
- Strong laboratory support
- Suffers as a general theory as the situations it best deals are rarely encountered in everyday life
- Lack ecological validity
- Studies of interference have largely involved episodic memory
- Trace Decay
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