Forgetting
- Created by: IrishEllie98
- Created on: 13-04-15 09:55
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- Forgetting
- Lack of consolidation
- Time is necessary for learning to become fixed/firmly recorded
- Time-dependant changes occur in the nervous system as a result of learning
- During consolidation, STM is repeatedly activated
- If something interrupts the process, EG: a bang to the head, then STM cannot be consolidated
- and memories cannot be stored for long-term access
- Evaluation
- Patients who have been concussed often suffer retrograde amnesia
- because the consolidation process has been interrupted
- which is memory loss for the events prior to the concussion
- Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) causes memory loss of events to occur before the therapy has been given
- Evidence which shows that the one-hour delay between learning and ECT, perfect retention occurs
- Suggests that the essential consolidation period required, to ensure info reaches long-term store, is up to one hour
- Evidence which shows that the one-hour delay between learning and ECT, perfect retention occurs
- There is evidence from both animals and humans to support the theory that the consolidation process in necessary to prevent memory disruption and loss.
- Patients who have been concussed often suffer retrograde amnesia
- Retrieval failure theory
- According to this theory, memories cannot be recalled because the correct retrieval cues are not being used
- The role of the retrieval cues is demonstrated by the 'tip of the tongue' phenomenon
- we know that we know something but cannot retrieve it from LTM at that particular moment
- 2 types of cue-dependent forgetting:
- context-dependent forgetting
- occurs if the relevant environmental variables that were present when learning took place are missing at recall; external cues
- state-dependent forgetting
- occurs in the absence of relevant psychological variables that were present during learning; internal cues
- context-dependent forgetting
- Evaluation
- able to explain findings that cannot be explained by trace decay theory
- A lot of empirical evidence to support cue-dependent forgetting.
- Studies use extreme conditions which would not occur in real life
- Lack ecological validity
- in less dramatic changes in environment only slight differences in recall are produced
- Motivated forgetting theory
- Access to repressed memories can occur through the use of Freudian techniques
- Free association, parapraxes, or repressed events break through in the form of dreams
- Retrieval is not available through conscious efforts to try to remember
- If we try to remember something, the more likely it will be repressed
- repressed because memory causes pain and can cause anxiety
- Freud
- some experiences are so painful that if they were allowed to enter consciousness they would produce overwhelming anxiety
- These experiences are repressed, stored in the unconscious and become inaccessible
- What is repressed varies from individual to individual, but when event is recalled it is accompanied by an unpleasant emotional reaction
- The memory is retrieved only when the emotional tension associated with it is released (AKA catharsis)and this usually occurs during therapy
- Evaluation
- In order to investigate motivated forgetting in a lab, participants would need to have experienced something traumatic; this is unethical
- support for motivated forgetting is also evident in tests of emotional inhibition
- EG: Levinger and Clark
- More recent studies have found that it may not be repression but arousal that influences the recall of emotionally charged words
- Access to repressed memories can occur through the use of Freudian techniques
- Lack of consolidation
- Motivated forgetting theory
- Access to repressed memories can occur through the use of Freudian techniques
- Free association, parapraxes, or repressed events break through in the form of dreams
- Retrieval is not available through conscious efforts to try to remember
- If we try to remember something, the more likely it will be repressed
- repressed because memory causes pain and can cause anxiety
- Freud
- some experiences are so painful that if they were allowed to enter consciousness they would produce overwhelming anxiety
- These experiences are repressed, stored in the unconscious and become inaccessible
- What is repressed varies from individual to individual, but when event is recalled it is accompanied by an unpleasant emotional reaction
- The memory is retrieved only when the emotional tension associated with it is released (AKA catharsis)and this usually occurs during therapy
- Evaluation
- In order to investigate motivated forgetting in a lab, participants would need to have experienced something traumatic; this is unethical
- support for motivated forgetting is also evident in tests of emotional inhibition
- EG: Levinger and Clark
- More recent studies have found that it may not be repression but arousal that influences the recall of emotionally charged words
- Access to repressed memories can occur through the use of Freudian techniques
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