---forgetting---

Question 1

Peterson and Peterson, 1959

Answer 1

• What is the duration of STM/WM?
• Participants remember a three-consonant sequence.
• Distractor task: count backwards in three’s.
• Accuracy affected by duration of distractor task.
• Only 50% accuracy when distractor task is 6-seconds long.
• Accuracy close to 0% when duration task is 18-seconds long.
• STM/WM traces decay.
• But they may also be sensitive to some interference.

Question 2

interface or decay?

Answer 2

• Keppel and Underwood (1962).
• Same task in Peterson and Peterson (1959).
• Accuracy declined throughout the task.
• Greater accuracy in the initial trials.
• Accuracy gradually declining throughout the trials.
• Could this be explained by interference?
• Previous stimuli causing interference with new stimuli.

Question 3

Nairne et al (1999)

Answer 3

• Addressed problem of similar stimuli potentially causing interference.
- (Reduce influence of proactive interference).

• Given distractor task.
• Participants presented words in a random order and asked to recall the order they were originally presented in.
• Accuracy very high up to durations of over 1.5 minutes!
• When interference is limited, very little decay?
Little evidence to suggest that interference has less influence than decay.

Question 4

Evidence to suggest that interference is important

Answer 4

Little evidence to suggest that interference has less influence than decay.

Question 5

Evidence to suggest interference isn’t important

Answer 5

• We cannot argue that there is no influence of decay (Ricker et al., 2016).
• When rehearsal is not possible (i.e. remembering unfamiliar characters/images – Ricker & Cowan, 2010):
• Accuracy decreased rapidly after short (i.e. 6 seconds) distractor tasks.
• Information is lost very quickly if it is not rehearsed!
• Stresses the importance of what is controlled for in memory tasks!

Question 6

traces decay

Answer 6

• Not the rapid decay we observe for sensory memory.
• When information not rehearsed in STM/WM, it decays.
• Interference affects the rehearsal process.

Question 7

forgetting in LTM: Decay

Answer 7

• Memory traces erode with the passage of time.
• Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924)
• Examined memory recall of non-existing syllables.
• Recall better after sleep.
• Emphasis on ‘interference’ rather than ‘decay’.
• No longer a valid theory of forgetting
• Lack of physiological evidence for LTM’s decaying.
• Older memories are not forgotten first.

Question 8

Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924)

Answer 8

• Participants learned nonsense syllables either in the evening before going to sleep, or in the morning after waking up.
• They were tested on the memory of the nonsense syllables 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours later.
• The key difference across the two conditions was whether the participant was awake or asleep – the time between learning and reproduction of the nonsense syllables was either spent awake or asleep.
• The rate of forgetting was worse when participants were awake
• There is a continued decline of forgetting when awake. Whereas, when asleep, the rate of forgetting has a small initial decline, but then rate of forgetting remains at a constant level

Question 9

Forgetting in LTM: lack of encoding

Answer 9

• Do we forget what we were told, or not encode the information in enough detail?
• Often, we don’t even encode the features necessary to ‘remember’ an object/event (i.e., details on a coin).

Question 10

interference

Answer 10

• When you keep calling your partner by your ex’s name.
• When you forget which of your passwords belongs to your account.
• When you realise you’ve gave someone your old number, not your current number.
  • Some memories ‘interfere’ with other memories.
  • Interference is stronger when material is similar.
  • We can search our memory, but due to competition, we can end up selecting the wrong memory.
  • We have experienced a lot, so there is a lot of interference.

Question 11

proactive intereference

Answer 11

• Old memories interfere with ability to remember new memories.
• Interference when retrieving new memories.

Question 12

retroactive interference

Answer 12

• New memories interfere with ability to remember old memories.
• Interference when retrieving old memories.