Forgetting

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Forgetting (retention loss) is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. It is subject to delicately balanced optimization that ensures that relevant memories are recalled. Forgetting can be prevented by repetition and/or evaluation of the information.

Memory storage, recall and forgetting is still a hotly debated field of inquiry. Little is known for sure about how humans encode, store and recall memories. It appears to involve changes on a biochemical level, which take time to occur. This contributes to the phenomenon of short-term memory and the learning curve.

[edit] History

One of the first people to study the mechanisms of forgetting was German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus. Using himself as the sole subject in his experiment, he memorized lists of three letter nonsense syllable words - two consonants and one vowel in the middle. He then measured his own capacity to relearn a given list of words after a variety of given time period. He found that forgetting occurs in a systematic manner, beginning rapidly and then leveling off. Although his methods were primitive, his basic premises have held true today and have been reaffirmed by more methodologically sound methods^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Definitions and Controversy

Forgetting can have very different causes than simply removal of stored content. Forgetting can mean access problems, availability problems, or can have other reasons such as amnesia caused by an accident.

Short-term memories are often subject to forgetting, while long-term memories are rarely forgotten, though they sometimes become inaccessible^{[citation needed]}.

A debatable yet popular concept is "trace decay", which can occur in both short and long-term memory. This theory, applicable mostly to short-term memory, is supposedly contradicted by the fact that one is able to ride a bike even after not having done so for decades. "Flashbulb memories" are another piece of seemingly contradicting evidence. It is believed that certain memories "trace decay" while others don't^{[citation needed]}. Sleep is believed to play a key role in halting trace decay^{[citation needed]}, although the exact mechanism of this is unknown.

[edit] See also

• Amnesia
• Forgetting Curve
• Educational psychology
• Memory