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Without memory (An active information processing system, that received's, organises, stores and retrive's information) every moment would be a new experience. Forgetting (the inability to receive previously stored information) occurs when the information is not availble or accesible. Because psychologists dont know exactly how memories are stored, or what form they take, it is not possible to say exactly how the individual forgets... However there are several there suggesting why forgetting occurs, such as the interference and decay theory. Although it may seem that forgetting is a problem, infact it is necessary to keep humans sane. Otherwise humans would be bombarded with and remember unnecessary information therefor memory is a survival mechanism (from) All information detected by sensory receptors enters the sensory memory.
It is the entry area of memory, were all the stimuli that bombard the senses are kept in their original form and are not encoded (The process of preparing information for storage in the memory system) and are kept there for a break time. When the indidivudal pays attention to information in the sensory memory, the information enters short term memory (STM) It is a memory system that has a limited storage capacity. After around 18 seconds memory in STM that is not rehearsed (the processes of doing something so that the information can be retained in memory. Eg repetition) has fleeted. Miller found that the average capacity of STM was 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information but can be improved by chunking. (Separate peices of information combined) The information is chunked according to meaning, they can take any form, words, images or phrases. If the information in STM is not rehearsed of reversal is interested the information disappears, and can never be reserved again.
Most forgetting occurs due to failure to encode, meaning that the information had never been placed in LTM. To be encoded in Long Term Memory (LTM) (The relatively permanent memory system that holds vast amounts of information for a long period of time) the information must be meaning full of rehearsed. Once it is encoded the information must be consolidated, and without it, information is lost. Many psychologists belive that LTM has several types and levels each of which is specialised for different types of knowledge.
Procedure memory enables indidivudal to preform certain skills such as typing, thing shoes, and driving while declarative memory is used to store facts which is then further divided into semantic memory and episodic memory. Sematic memory contains rules concepts and general facts about objects and the world. Epsiodic memory is personal and contains memories of previous unique experiences and veiw's. The cue dependency theory suggests that to enable the indidivudal to recal information an appropriate cue must be given. Cues can take many forms, where the information is learned can also make a difference. Also conditions and how the indidivudal's is feeling affects recal.
Many environmental factors can work as context cues. Lavender, livermore. Many experiments support this theory were done by Talking, were subjects were given lists, then cues to recal the words. Tip of the tounge (TOT) is also empirical evidence for this they. It is a feeling that occurs when indidivudal are aware of knowing something, but are unable to receive information.
Even thought this theory has many studies supporting it, it does not alone account for memory loss over time, and emotional dependent. The decay they suggests that information stored will be lost, unless it is revised regularly over time. The interference theory in LTM suggests that when new material inter fears with the retrieval of previously stored infomation (Retroactive interfaces) however this only occurs if the information is similar. The mind unconsciously blocks traumatic experience to protect the indidivudal (Fred) This theory has been difficult to test, but evidence from various instances suggests that repression takes place in certain circumstances.
Organ causes forgetting. Amnesia refers to various memory disorders that can be caused by things such as brain injury, reaction to a drug, of an emotional trauma. Forgetting can occur at the encoding, storage of retrieval stage. The exact reason for why the indidivudal forgets information is unknown, but many theories suggest why it occurs. Forgetting unnecessary information is necessary for survival, life can be difficult with a good memory.
Free research essays on topics related to: term memory, forgetting, stored, sensory memory, stm
Research essay sample on Sensory Memory Term Memory
