MEMORY

● Memory as Information Processing

● Parallel distributed processing
● Memory is a reconstructive process
● Forgetting
● Improving Memory
● Application of memory.

Memory refers to the processes that allow us to record, store, and later retrieve experiences
and information.

Memory is an active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information
into a usable form, organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from
storage (adapted from Baddeley, 1996, 2003).

Although there are several different models of how memory works, all of them involve
the same three processes getting the information into the memory system, storing it
there, and getting it back out. All three of these processes determine whether
something is remembered or forgotten.

Encoding: The first process in the memory system is to get sensory information
(sight, sound, etc.) into a form that the brain can use. This is called encoding.
Encoding is the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information
to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage systems.
For example, when people hear a sound, their ears turn the vibrations in the air into
neural messages from the auditory nerve (transduction), which make it possible for
the brain to interpret that sound. Encoding is not limited to turning sensory
information into signals for the brain. Encoding is accomplished differently in each of
three different storage systems of memory. In one system, encoding may involve
rehearsing information over and over to keep it in memory, whereas in another
system, encoding involves elaborating on the meaning of the information

Storage: The next step in memory is to hold on to the information for some period of
time in a process called storage. The period of time will actually be of different
lengths, depending on the system of memory being used. For example, in one
system of memory, people hold on to information just long enough to work with it,
about 20 seconds or so. In another system of memory, people hold on to informatio
more or less permanently.
Retrieval: Material in memory storage has to be located and brought into awareness
to be useful. For example, Your failure to recall Mumbai’s location, then, may rest on
your inability to retrieve information that you learned earlier.
In sum, psychologists consider memory to be the process by which we encode,
store, and retrieve information. Each of the three parts of this definition—encoding,
storage, and retrieval— represents a different process. You can think of these
processes as being analogous to a computer’s keyboard (encoding), hard drive
(storage), and software that accesses the information for display on the screen
(retrieval). Only if all three processes have operated will you experience success and
be able to recall the body of water on which Mumbai is located: the Arabian Sea.

Psychologists, like other scientists, often construct models of the processes they
study. These models are overviews describing the nature and operation of the
processes in question. Following this standard scientific pattern, psychologists have
proposed several models of human memory.

Information processing model:

The model that many researchers once felt was the most comprehensive and has
perhaps been the most influential over the last several decades is the
information-processing model. This approach focuses on the way information is
handled, or processed, through three different systems of memory. The processes of
encoding, storage, and retrieval are seen as part of this model. While it is common to
refer to the three systems of the information-processing model as stages of memory,
that term seems to imply a sequence of events. While many aspects of memory
formation may follow a series of steps or stages, there are those who see memory
as a simultaneous process, with the creation and storage of memories taking place
across a series of mental networks “stretched” across the brain.

(Pg- 384-387 seth and chadha)

Levels of processing theory- chadha and seth (pg 387)

Episodic trace model- chadha and seth (pg 388)
Network model of declarative memory (pg 388)

SENSORY MEMORY:
Information can be held for a very brief time in the sensory channels themselves. This
storage function of the sensory channels is called the sensory register. Most of the
information briefly held form the register. However, when we pay attention to and recognize
some of the information in the sensory register; the attended-to information is passed on to
short-term memory for further processing.
Stimulation of extremely brief duration like a flash, a brief electric shock or the sound of a
click may get registered and elicit a response. However since any get terminal so fast, their
fleeting projections are stored in sensory memory, the first memory system.

Sensory Memory

Actually, there are several types of sensory memories, each related to a different source of
sensory information. For instance, iconic memory reflects information from the visual system.
Echoic memory stores auditory information coming from the ears. In addition, there are
corresponding memories for each of the other sense. Despite the brief duration of sensory
memory, its precision is high; Sensory memory can store an almost exact replica of each
stimulus to which it is exposed (Darwin, Turvey, & Crowder, 1972; Long & Beaton, 1982;
Sams et al. 1993).

Sensory memory has a relatively large capacity though for a brief duration. Iconic memory
(visual) seems to last less than a second and echoic memory (auditory) usually fades in two
or three seconds.

Visual Sensory Memory or Iconic Memory

George Sperling (1960, 63, 67)wanted to measure what he called the 'span of
apprehension', the number of items a person could remember from a single brief exposure.
To do this, he presented observers with a matrix of printed letters such as:

T D R
S R N
F Z G

This presentation was made with the help of a tachistoscope illuminated by a single
50-m.sec flash of light. This duration was chosen since it is much shorter than the average
duration of a fixation and too brief for the occurrence of any eye movements during the
single presentation.

Sperling found that if the number of letter presented were less than four observers could
easily report the whole matrix without error. With more than four letters, performance was no
better. In fact never could the observers report more than four or five letters correctly
irrespective of the number presented there appeared to be an upper limen on the amount of
information that could be obtained from a single glance. However, observers did report of
seeing more letters that recalled by them but could not remember them. This suggested to
Sperling that the apparent limit on the span of apprehension in fact may occur at a stage of
processing after the visual analysis of the stimulus has been completed. That is, the visual
characteristics of the stimulus may have been taken in and stored, but the process of
classifying and identifying these stimuli has not yet been completed before this
representation was lost. This suggestion involved a clear hypothesis about the locus of the
limitations on performance for this particulars task.
To test this hypothesis instead of using the previous procedure called whole report, Sperling
used the partial report procedure in which the observer was free to recall whatever he
remembered rather than trying to recall the entire presentation. Using this technique,
Sperling could measure how much information was actually present immediately after the
display went off, and for the brief instant before that visual information decayed. The
technique Sperling used was to sample the information present in this hypothetical ‘visual
memory’. Using this technique, he could tap the content of the visual trace without using time
consuming process of total recall.
The results of Sperling's research taken together helped him to infer that there is a sensory
representation of the stimulus, which is stored for a very brief period of time but has a much
larger capacity than the later parts of the system. The short life of this sensory memory and
the limited capacity of later stages explain why we can see more than we can say.

Auditory Sensory Memory or Echoic Memory

The reason a sensory store is more necessary for audition than for vision comes from
inherent properties of these two modalities: Whereas meaningful visual patterns occur all at
once, spread out in space, meaningful auditory patterns occur piecemeal, spread out in time.
For an auditory event to be perceived as a unit, the early portion of that event must be held
while the later portions unfold.

Some ingenious experiments have shown that the visual sensory register holds information
for up to about 1 second (Sperling, 1960), while the auditory (hearing) register hold
information somewhat longer-up to about 4 or 5 seconds (Darwin et al, 1972). Studies with
the visual sensory register have also shown that it can hold at least 11 to 16 items of
information during the second before it loses the information through decay (Averbach &
Sperling, 1961; Estes & Taylor, 1966). Furthermore, in vision at least, the sensory storage
seems to be in the form of a faint image, called an iconic image, which is a copy of the visual
input (Sperling, 1963). It is this iconic image that persists in the visual sensory register for a
second before it gradually decays.

Here the role of selective attention is highlighted, which is our ability to pay attention to only
some aspects of the world around us while largely ignoring others (Johnston, McCann, and
Remington 1995; Posner and Peterson 1990). Lloyd et al. (1984) have estimated that 0.05%
of the contents of sensory memory get as far as STM.

SHORT TERM MEMORY:

Short-term memory is the memory store in which information first has a meaning, although
the maximum length of retention there is relatively short.

Short term memory is what a person uses for an activity such as remembering a new phone
number after calling directory assistance. The person may repeat the number silently until
dialing it, then promptly forget it. If distracted before dialing, the person may have to call
directory assistance again. That is because STM is fairly easily disrupted.

People who experience severe head injury demonstrate how easily the process of short-term
memory can be interrupted. For example, a person involved in a car accident may not recall
what happened just before impact or even during the accident itself. Some athletes who are
knocked unconscious during physical play may not remember what happened minutes
before they were hit. This is because there was not enough time for experiences to be
converted from short term to long term memory.

Peterson and Peterson (1959) included in a memory task a technique unique in the sense
that it permitted assessment of retention of a single item outside the usual content of an
entire list of items. The technique included a distraction task to eliminate or at least reduce
the subject's opportunity to rehearse.

In the experimental task, the subject was shown a green light and thereafter was presented
with a consonant trigram. A three digit number, say 295, followed this presentation. The
subject had been instructed previously to start counting backwards in threes soon after the
three-digit number is presented (e.g. 295, 292, 289...) with each tick of a metronome set at
one tick per second and was required to do so till a red light was shown. Then they were
required to recall the given. consonant trigram presented on that trial. In this way, 48
consonant trigrams were presented one by one and subjects were tested over 6 retention
intervals i.e. 3, 6, 9, 12. 15 and 18 seconds. The graph obtained shows that 50 percent
forgetting occurred after 6 seconds and 90 percent after 18 seconds.

The relation between percentage of correct recall and retention, as found in this study, was
that when rehearsal is not permitted, recall of a sub-span number of letters decreases
drastically within 18 seconds. Subsequent work by Murdock (1961) has established the
generality of this finding. It is also important to mention that Peterson and Peterson
suspected that their data indicated that verbal information was subject to rapid decay when
rehearsal was prevented. In experiments conducted by Hellyer (1962), he let the subject
repeat the verbal units (1, 2, 4 and 8 times) aloud. The results as shown in Fig. 1.3 show that
more the repetitions, the better the retention i.e. less the loss over a given retention interval.
In Peterson and Peterson's study, the subjects were allowed no repetitions and there was
more interference,hence, forgetting was more.

The other way in which degree of learning has been varied in STM is that retention in STM is
directly related to the degree of learning if it is improved by increasing the duration time of
exposure. That is, if the exposure time of presented stimulus is increased, retention will be
better.

A final way by which the degree of learning can be said to increase is by increased rehearsal
during the retention interval, which if interfered by backward counting and allowed minimal
rehearsal is adversely effected. Hence, more the rehearsal the better the learning and thus,
better the retention.

British psychologist Alan Baddeley (1998, 2000, 2001, 2003) proposed the concept of
Working Memory, a system that temporarily holds information as people perform cognitive
tasks. Working memory is a kind of mental "workbench" on which information is manipulated
and assembled to help us comprehend language, make decisions, and solve problems.
Working memory is not like a passive storehouse with shelves to store information until it
moves to long-term memory. Rather, it is an active memory system (Nyberg & others, 2002).

Working memory is like a mental workbench where a great deal of information processing is
carried out. Working memory consists of three main components: The phonological loop and
visuospatial working memory serve as assistants in helping the central executive to do its
work. Input from sensory memory goes to the phonological loop, where information about
speech is stored and rehearsal takes place, and to visuospatial working memory, where
visual and spatial information, including imagery, are stored. Working memory is
limited-capacity system, and information is stored there for only a brief time. Working
memory interacts with long-term memory, using information from long-term memory in its
work and transmitting information to long-term memory for storage.

The concept of working memory can help us understand how brain damage influences
cognitive skills (LaBar & others, 2002). For example, one amnesia patient has good
long-term memory despite being able to remember only two digits (Baddeley, 1992). The
phonological loop is the source of this patient's memory problem. Because he cannot
maintain verbal codes in the loop, his memory span suffered. He also has difficulty learning
new associations between words and nonsense sounds. Working memory deficits also are
involved in Alzheimer's disease a progressive, irreversible brain disorder in older adults.
Baddeley (1998) believes the central executive of the working memory model is the culprit in
Alzheimer's patients who have great difficulty coordinating different mental activities, one of
the central executive's functions.

(Working Memory - pg 394)

LONG TERM MEMORY:

Long-term memory is our vast library of more durable stored memories. Our sense of self
and continuity as an individual exists because of long-term memory. Human memory store is
highly systematic and organized, just like a library, well equipped with a good cross-indexing
system. The LTM is capable of organizing, categorizing and classifying information.

John von Neumann, a distinguished computer scientist, put the size of LTM at 2.8X10 (280
quintillion) bits, which in practical terms means that our storage capacity is virtually unlimited.
Von Neumann assumed that we never forget anything, but even considering that we don't
forget things, we can hold several billion times more information than a large computer.

Long-term memory is complex. At the top level, it is divided into substructures of explicit
memory and implicit memory. In simple terms, explicit memory has to do with remembering
who, what, where, when, and why and implicit memory has to do with remembering how.
One way to study the organization of information in long-term memory is to see what
happens when we search through our library of experience to retrieve a memory, suppose
you are trying to retrieve a person's name but you cannot quite remember it, the name is on
the "tip of your tongue”, but you just cannot recall it. This is known as the “tip of the tongue”
phenomenon.

Explicit memory refers to intentional or conscious recollection of information. When we try to

remember a name or date we have encountered or learned about previously, we are
searching our explicit memory.

In contrast, implicit memory refers to memories of which people are not consciously aware,
but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior. Skills that operate automatically
and without thinking, such as jumping out of the path of an automobile coming toward us as
we walk down the side of a road, are stored in implicit memory. Similarly, a feeling of vague
dislike for an acquaintance, without knowing why we have that feeling, may be a reflection of
implicit memories. Perhaps the person reminds us of someone else in our past that we didn't
like even though we are not aware of the memory of that other individual (Schacter & Scarry,
2000, Tulving, 200: Uttl, Graf, & Consentino, 2003).

Let us consider the case of H.M., the most dramatic problem he developed was an inability
to form new memories that outlive working memory. H.M.'s memory time frame is only a few
minutes at most, so he lives, as he has done since 1953, in a perpetual present and cannot
remember past events (explicit memory). In contrast, his memory of how to do things
(implicit memory) was less affected. For example, he can learn new physical tasks. In one
such task, H.M. was asked to trace the outline of a star-shaped figure while viewing the
figure and his hand in a mirror. This is a task that most people find difficult in the beginning.
Over 3 days of training. H.M. learned this task as effectively and rapidly as normal
individuals. On the second and third days, he began at the level he had achieved the
previous day (a success in implicit memory), even though he was completely unaware that
he had previously practised the task (a failure in explicit memory).

EXPLICIT MEMORY:
Explicit Memory is the conscious recollection of information such as specific facts or events
and at least in humans, information that can be verbally communicated (Tulving, 1989,
2000). Episodic memory is the retention of information about the where and when of life's
happenings. It is autobiographical For example, it will include what happened when you first
met your spouse your first job interview or what you were doing when parliament terrorist
attach news was flashed.

Episodic memory is typically subdivided into two further categories: recollection and
familiarity. Recollection refers to memories of a past event that include specific associations
and contextual details, whereas familiarity refers to the sense the we experiences an event
at some point in the past, even though no specific associations or contextual details come to
mind.
Semantic memory is a person's knowledge about the world. It includes your fields of
expertise, general knowledge of the sort you learned in school, and everyday knowledge
about meanings of words, famous individuals, important places, and common things.

Semantic memory is more highly organized then episodic memory and hence less
susceptible to being forgotten.

Episodic memory is related to semantic memory by virtue of information through semantic

memory, i.e. in reproducing episodes we take the help of information stored in semantic
memory (language). In life, episodic and semantic memories interact and to some degree
overlap. In fact, memory for the events of our own lives, called autobiographical memory, is a
complex mixture of episodic and semantic memories.

Another aspect of explicit memory, which is currently a hot topic, is the difference between
retrospective memory, remembering the past and prospective memory, remembering
information about doing something in the future (Burgess, Quayle, & Frith, 2001).
Prospective memory includes memory for intention.

IMPLICIT MEMORY:
Implicit memory is memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without that
experience being consciously recollected. Examples of implicit memory include the skills of
playing football and typing, as well as the repetition in your mind of a song you heard
somewhere even though you did not consciously attend to the music. Three subsystems of
implicit memory consist of memories that you are not aware of yet predispose you to behave
in certain ways (Schacter, 2000):

• Procedural memory involves memory for skills. For example, once you have learned to
drive a car, you remember how to do it: you do not have to remember consciously how to
drive the car as you put the key in the ignition. turn the steering wheel, push on the gas
pedal, and so on.

• Priming is the activation of information that people already have in storage to help them
remember new information better and faster (Badgaiyan, Schacter, & Alpert, 2001; Huber &
others, 2001). Priming occurs even when explicit memory is not required, it is assumed to be
an involuntary and non-conscious process (Hauptmann & Karni, 2002).

• Classical conditioning, a form of learning, which involves the automatic learning of

associations between stimuli. For instance, a person who is constantly criticized may
develop high blood pressure or other physical problems. Classically conditioned associations
such as this involve implicit unconscious memory.

Organization in memory one of the most distinctive features of memory is its organization.
Psychological evidence indicates that if people are encouraged to organize material, their
memories of the material improve.
Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) model

The Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) model of memory is based on the idea that the
brain does not function in a series of activities but rather executes a variety of operations at
the same time, parallel to each other. PDP varies from other models since it does not
emphasise distinctions between different types of memory. Instead, it suggests that cognitive
processes can be represented by a model in which activation flows across networks that
connect neuron-like units or nodes, i.e. parallel - more than one process occurring at the
same time; dispersed - processing occurring in multiple locations.For example, rather than
being saved in a single location, information about a person, item, or event is stored as a
series of interconnected units. This method to memory explains why people can reach
correct conclusions even when given wrong information. We can also create generalisations
based on the connections between previously known information.

Learning involves gaining access to one or more of these units, which then activate the other
units and re-create your knowledge of the object, event. Each unit is involved in the portrayal
of a number of different people or items. James McClelland is a key developer of the PDP
Approach. He showed how links that link these people with their particular qualities could be
used to preserve our knowledge. According to the PDP Approach, memory is made up of
networks of units linked by various connection weights; when one unit reaches a certain
degree of activity, it can affect another unit by either exciting it (if the connection weight is
positive) or inhibiting it (if the connection weight is negative). Cognitive processes includes
parallel processing; new events alter the strength of the connections, but we sometimes only
have partial recall for some knowledge rather than total, perfect memory. The ability of the
brain to deliver partial results is referred to as graceful deterioration. The PDP Approach has
numerous advantages:

▪ system can often function reasonably well even if a unit is damaged or imperfect
information is supplied to it

▪'spontaneous generalisations'

▪ "default assignment"

▪ convincing account of how general info can emerge from specific information

▪ its account of amnesia.

The PDP Technique has sparked a lot of interest, despite the fact that it works better for
pattern recognition, categorising, and memory search than for higher mental processes that
are more serial in nature; the approach is so new that it can't yet be thoroughly tested.
MEMORY IS A RECONSTRUCTIVE PROCESS:

People tend to assume that their memories are accurate when, in fact, memories are
revised, edited, and altered on an almost continuous basis. The reason for the changes
that occur in memory has to do with the way in which memories are formed as well as
how they are retrieved.
Many people have the idea that when they recall a memory, they are recalling it as if it were
an “instant replay.” As new memories are created in LTM, old memories can get “lost,” but
they are more likely to be changed or altered in some way (Baddeley, 1988). In reality,
memories are never quite accurate, and the more time that passes, the more inaccuracies
creep in.
One of the reasons of an inaccurate memory may be that during encoding the
to-be-remembered information is modified. These modifications are termed as constructive
processes, Frederick Bartlett (1932) was the first psychologist to describe remembering as
'constructive'. He meant that ordinary recall is almost never the exact reproduction of
something old, of stored stimuli or responses in their original forms. Instead, it is typically the
production of something new, appropriate to the present situation.
As opposed to this, modification of already stored input also takes place. This is termed as
reconstructive processes.
To show the role of reconstructive processes, Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted an
experiment. They took a group of subjects and showed them a short film of an automobile
accident. After this, the subjects were divided into two groups. Each group was given a
questionnaire to fill. The critical question in the questionnaire for group one was 'about how
fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other’. The critical question in the
questionnaire given to group two was ‘about how fast were the cars going when they hit
each other’. After the subjects of each group had filled up the questionnaire, they were
asked to disperse and report after a week. After a week when they reported, they were
asked a number of questions. The critical question asked was 'Did you see any broken
glasses’? There were no broken glasses in the film they had been shown a week back
The responses of the subjects of group one who had been given the 'smashed question
were positive i.e. they said they had seen broken glasses. The responses of the subjects of
group two were largely negative.
These results lend support to the fact that reconstructive processes operate and can
influence retrieval. A point, however, must be mentioned that it is difficult to say whether the
modifications that have occurred were due to the constructive process at the time of
encoding or due to the reconstructive process at a later stage However, be it whenever,
modifications do occur as evident by studies. The reconstruction principle is of utmost
importance in the present context because it means that any particular memory is only partly
derived from trace information encoded at the time of the event (Kihlstrom 1994, 1998).
The first and pioneering attempts to study forgetting were made by German psychologist
Hermann Ebbinghaus more than a century ago. Using himself as a participant in his study,
Ebbinghaus memorized list of three letters, nonsense syllables (NSS) meaningless sets of
two consonants with a vowel in between, such as ZEQ, FIW, VUT etc. He tried measuring
how easy or difficult it was to relearn a given list of words after varying periods of time had
passed since the initial learning. He found that forgetting occurred systematically.
An example of how memories are reconstructed occurs when people, upon learning
the details of a particular event, revise their memories to reflect their feeling that
they “knew it all along.” They will discard any incorrect information they actually had
and replace it with more accurate information gained after the fact. This tendency of
people to falsely believe that they would have accurately predicted an outcome without
having been told about it in advance is called hindsight bias (Bahrick et al., 1996; Hoffrage
et al., 2000). People who have ever done some “Monday morning quarterbacking”
by saying that they knew all along who would win the game have fallen victim to hindsight
bias.

Memory Retrieval Problems Some people may say that they have “total recall.” What
they usually mean is that they feel that their memories are more accurate than those of other
People.

The Misinformation Effect

Misleading information can become part of the actual memory, affecting its accuracy (Loftus
et al., 1978). This is called the misinformation effect. Loftus, in addition to her studies
concerning eyewitness testimony, has also done several similar studies that demonstrate the
misinformation effect. One of the interesting points made by his study is that information that
comes not only after the original event but also in an entirely different format (i.e., written
instead of visual) can cause memories of the event to be incorrectly reconstructed.

False memory syndrome

False-memory syndrome refers to the creation of inaccurate or false memories through the
suggestion of others, often while the person is under hypnosis (Frenda et al., 2014;
Hochman, 1994; Laney & Loftus, 2013; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). For example,
research has shown that, although hypnosis may make it easier to recall some real
memories, it also makes it easier to create false memories. Research suggests that false
memories are created in the brain in much the same way as real memories are formed,
especially when visual images are involved (Gonsalves et al., 2004)

FORGETTING:

Forgetting is the loss or change in information that was was previously stored in short-term
or long-term memory. It can occur suddenly or it can occur gradually as old memories are
lost.
German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1964) pioneered the study of forgetting by
testing only one person—himself. He created more than 2,000 nonsense syllables,
meaningless letter combinations (e.g., biv, zaj, xew), to study memory with minimal influence
from prior learning, as would happen if he used actual words. In one study, Ebbinghaus
performed more than 14,000 practice repetitions trying to memorize 420 lists of nonsense
syllables. Ebbinghaus typically measured memory by using a method called relearning and
then computing a savings percentage. For example, if it initially took him 20 trials to learn a
list but only half as many trials to relearn it a week later, then the savings percentage was 50
percent. In one series of studies, he retested his memory at various time intervals after
mastering several lists of nonsense syllables. Forgetting occurred rapidly at first and slowed
noticeably thereafter.

WHY DO WE FORGET?

Encoding Failure
Many memory failures result not from forgetting information that we once knew, but from
failing to encode the information into long-term memory in the first place. Even when we
notice information, we may fail to encode it deeply because we turn our attention to
something else. Brad Bushman and Angelica Bonacci (2002) randomly assigned 328 adults
to watch either a sexually explicit, violent, or neutral TV program. Nine commercial
advertisements (e.g., for snacks, cereal, laundry detergent) appeared during each program.
Immediately afterward and again a day later, the researchers tested viewers’ memory for the
ads. At both times, viewers who watched the sexually explicit and violent programs
remembered the fewest number of ads. Several factors might account for this, and as the
researchers proposed, one of them is encoding failure: All the viewers clearly saw the ads,
but those watching the sexually explicit and violent programs likely were the most
preoccupied with thoughts about the content of the shows.

Memory Trace Decay Theory

One of the older theories of forgetting involves the concept of a memory trace. A memory
trace is some physical change in the brain, perhaps in a neuron or in the activity between
neurons, which occurs when a memory is formed (Brown, 1958; Peterson & Peterson,
1959). Over time, if these traces are not used, they may decay, fading into nothing. It would
be similar to what happens when a number of people walk across a particular patch of grass,
causing a path to appear in which the grass is trampled down and perhaps turning brown.
But if people stop using the path, the grass grows back and the path disappears.
Forgetting in sensory memory and short-term memory seems easy to explain as decay:
Information that is not brought to attention in sensory memory or continuously rehearsed in
STM will fade away When referring to LTM, decay theory is usually called disuse, and the
phrase “use it or lose it” takes on great meaning (Bjork & Bjork, 1992). Although the fading of
information from LTM through disuse sounds logical, there are many times when people can
recall memories they had assumed were long forgotten. There must be other factors
involved in the forgetting of long-term memories.

Interference Theory

A possible explanation of LTM forgetting is that although most long-term memories may be
stored more or less permanently in the brain, those memories may not always be accessible
to attempted retrieval because other information interferes (Anderson & Neely, 1995). (And
even memories that are accessible are subject to constructive processing, which can lead to
inaccurate recall). Such interference can take two different forms:
In retroactive interference, information currently being learned interfereswith information
already present in memory. If learning how to operate a new computer program causes you
to forget how to operate one you learned previously, this is an example of retroactive
interference. In proactive interference, in contrast, previously learned information present in
long-term memory interferes with information you are learning at present.
For example, if you know English and you find it difficult to learn French, it is because of
proactive interference and if, on the other hand, you cannot recall English equivalents of
French words that you are currently memorising, then it is an example of retroactive
interference.

Motivated Forgetting

Psychodynamic and other psychologists propose that, at times, people are consciously or
unconsciously motivated to forget. Sigmund Freud often observed that during therapy, his
patients remembered long-forgotten traumatic or anxiety- arousing events. One of his
patients suddenly remembered with great shame that while standing beside her sister’s
coffin she had thought, “Now my brother-in-law is free to marry me.” Freud concluded that
the thought had been so shocking and anxiety arousing that the woman had repressed
it—pushed it down into her unconscious mind, there to remain until it was uncovered years
later during therapy. Repression is a motivational process that protects us by blocking the
conscious recall of anxiety-arousing memories.
Parkin (1993) stated that another factor of repression was post-traumatic stress disorder. He
discovered that survivors of the Holocaust that seemed well adjusted were less able to recall
their dreams than those survivors who were not well adjusted, when woken from rapid eye
movement sleep. The nature of forgetting that occurs in dramatic instances of amnesia aids
in the understanding of repression. The amnesia victim forgets items of personal reference
while still retaining a rich store of memories and habits to conduct current activities.

Improving Your Memory

Pg- 413 chadha and seth

Biological basis of Memory

Pg- 402 chadha and seth