PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Eyewitness Testimony, Eidetic Memory, Forgetting Curve

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Mark Dallas

Document Summary

Sometimes we don"t remember b/c: we don"t encode info initially, we encode but don"t store it well, storage decays. Sometimes we encode and store, but still forget. What affects retrieval: context effects: ability to recall is improved when in same context as initial experience, words heard under water are better recalled under water vs recalled on land. Encoding failure: info is never encoded into long-term memory, some memories cannot be encoded without conscious effort. Storage decay: memories gradually decay if unused/rehearsed, info is first rapidly forgotten, then levels off after certain period of time. Ex; study of forgetting curve for spanish learned in school (after first. 3 years, people forgot much of what they learned, but after 25 years, they did not forget much more) Forward acting early event interferes with later event. An old address may interfere with learning a new address: retroactive interference. Backward acting later event interferes with early event.