The Psychology of Forgetting and Why Memory Fails

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsTime’s Role in ForgettingHow Forgetting is MeasuredTheories About ForgettingFrequently Asked Questions

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Time’s Role in Forgetting

How Forgetting is Measured

Theories About Forgetting

Frequently Asked Questions

Close

Forgetting is an all too common part of daily life. Sometimes thesememoryslips are simple and fairly innocuous, such as forgetting to return a phone call. Other times, forgetting can be much more dire and even have serious consequences, such as an eyewitness forgetting important details about a crime.

Memory failures are an almost daily occurrence. Forgetting is so common that you probably rely on numerous methods to help you remember important information, such as jotting down notes in a daily planner or scheduling important events on your phone’s calendar.

As you are frantically searching for your missing car keys, it may seem that the information about where you left them is permanently gone from your memory. However, forgetting is generally not about actuallylosingor erasing this information from your long-term memory.

Forgetting typically involves a failure inmemory retrieval. While the information is somewhere in your long-term memory, you are not able to actually retrieve and remember it.

Why Time Plays a Key Role in Forgetting

Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus was one of the first to scientifically study forgetting. In experiments where he used himself as the subject, Ebbinghaus tested his memory using three-letter nonsense syllables. He relied on such nonsense words because using previously known words would have involved drawing on his existing knowledge and associations in his memory.

In order to test for new information, Ebbinghaus tested his memory for periods of time ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days. He then published his findings in 1885 inMemory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology.

His results, plotted in what is known as the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, revealed a relationship between forgetting and time. Initially, information is often lost very quickly after it is learned. Factors such as how the information was learned and how frequently it was rehearsed play a role in how quickly these memories are lost. Information stored inlong-term memoryis surprisingly stable.

The forgetting curve also showed that forgetting does not continue to decline until all of the information is lost.At a certain point, the amount of forgetting levels off.

How Does Experimental Psychology Study Behavior?

Sometimes it might seem that information has been forgotten, but even a subtle cue can help trigger the memory. Imagine the last time you took an exam for school. While you might have initially felt forgetful and unprepared, seeing the information presented on the test probably helped cue the retrieval of information you might not have known you even remembered.

So how do we know when something has been forgotten? There are a few different ways to measure this:

Of course, many factors can contribute to forgetting. Sometimes you might be distracted when you learn new information, which might mean that you never truly retain the information long enough to remember it later. Well-known memory researcherElizabeth Loftushas proposed four key explanations forwhy forgetting occurs. These have led to some major theories of forgetting.

Interference Theory

What did you have for dinner Tuesday night of last week? Is that difficult to recall? If someone had asked you that question Wednesday morning, you probably would have had no problem recalling what you had for dinner the night before.

But as intervening days pass, the memories of all the other meals you have eaten since then start to interfere with your memory of that one particular meal. This is a good example of what psychologists call the interference theory of forgetting.

According to interference theory, forgetting is the result of different memories interfering with one another. The more similar two or more events are to one another, the more likely interference will occur.

It is difficult to remember what happened on an average school day two months ago because so many other days have occurred since then. Unique and distinctive events, however, are less likely to suffer from interference. Your high school graduation, wedding, and the birth of your first child are much more likely to be recalled because they are singular events—days like no other.

Interference also plays a role in what is known as theserial position effect, or the tendency to recall the first and last items of a list. For example, imagine that you wrote down a shopping list but forgot to take it with you to the store. In all likelihood, you will probably be able to easily recall the first and last items on your list, but you might forget many of the items that were in the middle.

The first thing you wrote down and the last thing you wrote down stand out as being more distinct, while the fourth item and seventh item might seem so similar that they interfere with each other. There are two basic types of interference that can occur:

Eliminating interference altogether is impossible, but there are a few things you can do to minimize its effects. One of the best things you can do is rehearse new information in order to better commit it to memory. In fact, many experts recommendoverlearningimportant information, which involves rehearsing the material over and over again until it can be reproduced perfectly with no errors.

Another tactic to fight interference is to switch up your routine and avoid studying similar material back to back. For example, don’t try to study vocabulary terms for your Spanish language class right after studying terms for your German class. Break up the material and switch to a completely different subject each study session.

Sleep also plays an essential role in memory formation. Researchers suggest thatsleepingafter you learn something new is one of the best ways to turn new memories into lasting ones.

Decay Theory of Forgetting

According to the trace theory of memory, physical and chemical changes in the brain results in a memory “trace.” Information inshort-term memorylasts several seconds and if it is not rehearsed, the neurochemical memory trace quickly fades. According to the trace decay theory of forgetting, the events that happen between the formation of a memory and the recall of the memory have no impact on recall.

Trace theory proposes that the length of time between the memory and recalling that information determines whether the information will be retained or forgotten. If the time interval is short, more information will be recalled. If a longer period of time passes, more information will be forgotten and memory will be poorer.

One of the problems with this theory is that it is difficult to demonstrate that time alone is responsible for declines in recall. In real-world situations, many things happen between the formation of a memory and the recall of that information. A student who learns something in class, for example, might have hundreds of unique and individual experiences between learning that information and having to recall it on an exam.

Was forgetting the date that the American Revolutionary War began due to the length of time between learning the date in your American History class and being tested on it? Or did the multitude of information acquired during that interval of time play a role? Testing this can be exceedingly difficult. It is nearly impossible to eliminate all the information that might have an influence on the creation of the memory and the recall of the memory.

Another problem with decay theory is it does not account for why some memories fade quickly while others linger. Novelty is one factor that plays a role. For example, you are more likely to remember your very first day of college than all of the intervening days between it and graduation. That first day was new and exciting, but all the following days probably seem quite similar to each other.

Retrieval Failure Theory

Sometimes the memories are there, but we just can’t seem to access them. Two of the basic reasons for this failure in memory retrieval are related to encoding failures and lack of retrieval cues.

A common reason why we don’t remember information is because it never made it into long-term memory in the first place.

Since you don’t actually need to know what the back of a penny looks like to differentiate it from other coins, you only really focus on the information you do need—the overall size, shape, and color of the coin. You aren’t able to recall what the back of a penny really looks like because that information was never really encoded into memory in the first place.

Cue-Dependent Theory of Forgetting

Other researchers have suggested that sometimes information is actually present in memory, but that it cannot be recalled unless retrieval cues are present. These cues are elements that were present at the time that the actual memory was encoded.

For example, remembering the details of your first date with your spouse might be easier if you smell the same scent that your partner was wearing on that first date. The retrieval cue (the scent) was present when that memory was created, so smelling it again can trigger the retrieval of those memories.

A Word From Verywell

Forgetting is simply a part of life. Numerous theories explain how and why we forget. In many situations, several of these explanations might account for why we cannot remember. The passage of time can make memories more difficult to access, while the abundance of information vying for our attention can create competition between old and new memories. Still, we can work tobecome better at recalling information.

Proven Techniques to Improve Your Memory

According to these psychological theories, the four types of forgetting are interference, decay, retrieval failure, and cue dependence.

While a normal part of aging, forgetting can be a symptom of depression, Alzheimer’s disease, or some type of infection.If you’re concerned about your forgetfulness, your healthcare provider can perform tests to determine its cause.

Psychology professionals sometimes refer to forgetting as amnesia, memory loss, or disremembering.

13 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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