Remembering and Forgetting Remembering Network Theory We store

Remembering and Forgetting

Remembering • Network Theory – We store ideas in separate categories called nodes – As we make associations, we create links among thousands of nodes • Cognitive map – Personal associations that are followed in order to remember something

Remembering • Network Hierarchy • Arrangement of nodes in a certain order • Top- Abstract information – Animal • Middle- More specific information – Bird or fish • Bottom- concrete information – Blue jay, rooster, shark or guppy

Forgetting • Four major reasons forgetting – Repression – Poor retrieval cues – Amnesia – Interference

Forgetting • Repression – Emotional process that automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxietyproducing information in the unconscious • Comes out in therapy • Not always correct –Sexual abuse

Forgetting • Poor retrieval cues – Mental reminders that we create by forming vivid mental images or creating associations between new information and information we already know • Amnesia – Loss of memory that may occur after a blow or damage to the brain, after drug use, or after severe psychological stress

Forgetting • Interference – The recall of some particular memory is blocked or prevented by other related memories – Proactive- old info. (learned earlier) blocks or disrupts the remembering of related new info. (learned) later – Retroactive- new info. (learned later) blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related old info. (learned earlier) –

Forgetting • Biological Bases of Memory – Cortex- where you store words, facts, or events • Used in both short-term and long-term memory – Amygdala- emotional memories, associations – Hippocampus- transfers short-term into longterm memory • Declarative only

Memorization • Mnemonic devices – Ways to improve encoding and create better retrieval cues by forming vivid associations or images, which improve recall • Method of Loci- creating visual associations between already memorized places and new items to be memorized • Peg Method- associations between number-word rhymes and items to be memorized