Forgetting & Enhancing Memory

Psychology Memory Forgetting & Enhancing Memory

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Forgetting

Memory researchers certainly haven’t forgotten Hermann Ebbinghaus, the first person to do scientific studies of forgetting, using himself as a subject. He spent a lot of time memorizing endless lists of nonsense syllables and then testing himself to see whether he remembered them. He found that he forgot most of what he learned during the first few hours after learning it.

Later researchers have found that forgetting doesn’t always occur that quickly. Meaningful information fades more slowly than nonsense syllables. The rate at which people forget or retain information also depends on what method is used to measure forgetting and retention. Retention is the proportion of learned information that is retained or remembered—the flip side of forgetting.

Measures of Forgetting and Retention

Researchers measure forgetting and retention in three different ways: recall, recognition, and relearning.

Recall

Recall is remembering without any external cues. For example, essay questions test recall of knowledge because nothing on a blank sheet of paper will jog the memory.

Recognition

Recognition is identifying learned information using external cues. For example, true or false questions and multiple-choice questions test recognition because the previously learned information is there on the page, along with other options. In general, recognition is easier than recall.

Relearning

When using the relearning method to measure retention, a researcher might ask a subject to memorize a long grocery list. She might measure how long he has to practice before he remembers every item. Suppose it takes him ten minutes. On another day, she gives him the same list again and measures how much time he takes to relearn the list. Suppose he now learns it in five minutes. He has saved five minutes of learning time, or 50 percent of the original time it took him to learn it. His savings score of 50 percent indicates that he retained 50 percent of the information he learned the first time.

Causes of Forgetting

Everyone forgets things. There are six main reasons for forgetting: ineffective encoding, decay, interference, retrieval failure, motivated forgetting, and physical injury or trauma.

Ineffective Encoding

The way information is encoded affects the ability to remember it. Processing information at a deeper level makes it harder to forget. If a student thinks about the meaning of the concepts in her textbook rather than just reading them, she’ll remember them better when the final exam comes around. If the information is not encoded properly—such as if the student simply skims over the textbook while paying more attention to the TV—it is more likely to be forgotten.

Decay

According to decay theory, memory fades with time. Decay explains the loss of memories from sensory and short-term memory. However, loss of long-term memories does not seem to depend on how much time has gone by since the information was learned. People might easily remember their first day in junior high school but completely forget what they learned in class last Tuesday.

Interference

Interference theory has a better account of why people lose long-term memories. According to this theory, people forget information because of interference from other learned information. There are two types of interference: retroactive and proactive.

Enhancing Memory

In spite of all these reasons for forgetting, people can still remember a vast amount of information. In addition, memory can be enhanced in a variety of ways, including rehearsal, overlearning, distributed practice, minimizing interference, deep processing, organizing information, mnemonic devices, and visual imagery.

Rehearsal

Practicing material helps people remember it. The more people rehearse information, the more likely they are to remember that information.

Overlearning

Overlearning, or continuing to practice material even after it is learned, also increases retention.

Distributed Practice

Learning material in short sessions over a long period is called distributed practice or the “spacing effect.” This process is the opposite of cramming, which is also called massed practice. Distributed practice is more effective than cramming for retaining information.

Minimizing Interference

People remember material better if they don’t learn other, similar material right before or soon after their effort. One way to minimize interference is to sleep after studying material, since people can’t learn new material while sleeping.

Deep Processing

People also remember material better if they pay attention while learning it and think about its meaning rather than memorize the information by rote. One way to process information deeply is to use a method called elaboration. Elaboration involves associating the material being learned with other material. For example, people could associate the new material with previously learned material, with an anecdote from their own lives, with a striking example, or with a movie they recently saw.

Organizing Material

Organizing material in a coherent way helps people to remember it:

  • Organizing material hierarchically or in categories and subcategories can be particularly helpful. The way an outline is organized, for example, usually helps people to remember the material in it.
  • Chunking material into segments is also helpful. People often remember long strings of numbers, such as social security numbers, by chunking them into two-, three-, or four-digit segments.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are strategies for improving memory. Different kinds of mnemonics include acronyms, acrostics, the narrative method, and rhymes.

  • Acronyms are words made out of the first letters of several words. For example, to remember the colors of the spectrum, people often use the name ROY G. BIV, which gives the first letters of the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet in the right order.
  • Acrostics are sentences or phrases in which each word begins with a letter that acts as a memory cue. For example, the rather strange phrase Roses on yachts grow better in vinegar also helps to remember the colors of the spectrum.
  • Narrative methods  involve making up a story to remember a list of words. For example, people could remember the colors of the rainbow in the right order by making up a short story such as this: Red Smith stood next to an orange construction cone and flagged down a yellow cab. He told the cabbie he was feeling very green and asked to be taken to a hospital. The cabbie took him to a hospital, where a nurse in a blue coat guided him to a room with indigo walls. He smelled a violet in a vase and passed out.
  • Rhymes are also good mnemonics. For example, the familiar rhyme that begins, “Thirty days has September . . .” is a mnemonic for remembering the number of days in each month.
 

Visual Imagery

Some well-known memory improvement methods involve using visual imagery to memorize or recall lists.

Method of Loci

When using the method of loci, people might picture themselves walking through a familiar place. They imagine each item on their list in a particular place as they walk along. Later, when they need to remember their list, they mentally do the walk again, noting the items they imagined along the path.

The Link Method

To use the link method, people associate items on a list with each other. For example, if a man wants to remember to buy bread, juice, and carrots at the store, he might try visualizing the peculiar image of himself eating a juice-and-bread mush using carrots as chopsticks.

Peg Word Method

When using the peg word method, people first remember a rhyme that associates numbers with words: one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree, four is a door, five is a hive, six is sticks, seven is heaven, eight is a gate, nine is swine, ten is a hen. They then visualize each item on their list being associated with a bun, a shoe, a tree, and so on. When they need to remember the list, they first think of a bun, then see what image it’s associated with. Then they think of a shoe, and so forth.

Psychology Memory Forgetting & Enhancing Memory 
Psychology Memory Forgetting & Enhancing Memory

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