Forgetting occurs in many ways and undoubtedly for many reasons. One reason we forget is that we never stored the information we want to remember in the first place. Because we didn't pay enough attention to it, it was lost from our memory system in a matter of seconds. But even in cases where we seemingly have learned something quite well, we are sometimes unable to remember it later. Psychologists have advanced a number of reasons for this.
1. Interference
We forgot what we learned because we learned other things later. The amount of forgetting depends on the similarity between the material learned now and the material learned in the past. When the interference material is most similar to the material originally learned, the interference is most active. The experiment compared four groups of subjects. They all learned the list of adjectives. Then one group learns other adjectives. Another irrelevant material for learning, such as 3 digits or meaningless syllables. The third group read some jokes. The fourth group rested. When these four groups were retested on the original adjective list, the rested subjects forgot less than those who studied irrelevant materials. When learning other adjectives in this interval, the forgetting will be greater, and when the following adjectives are synonyms of the adjectives in the first list, the forgetting will be greater.
2. Retrieval Failure
The key process of remembering something is to be able to retrieve it. We often search our huge knowledge warehouse and cannot find what we want. A study showed the importance of good retrieval, in which people looked at pictures very briefly. They were asked to describe what they saw, including as many details as possible, and to draw pictures at the same time. At first, people couldn't remember many details, only one person, the truck, the boardwalk and the storefront. Then, the subjects were asked to seriously think about what they saw and "freely associate" their memories of the pictures. They said aloud all the words they thought of and continued their thinking until 120 associations were formed. Then, they were asked to recall the photos again. This time, they reported many details that were not mentioned before, which shows that they store much more picture information in memory than they originally generated. Free association seems to provide them with new clues, help their retrieval process and make them remember more. More generally, this is called "jogging memory".
3. Motivated Forgetting
People returning from vacation tend to remember happy times and forget sad times. Gamblers tend to remember the time they have won and forget the time they have lost. This leads to a belief that we deliberately forget because we want to forget.
Many evidences of motivational forgetting come from individual cases. An example is a university professor, Dr. R. J., who has lost her memory. To their shock, her friends and family found that she would look directly into their eyes instead of seeing it at a glance. She didn't remember where she lived, and almost no one knew it. She does not remember her name or her way of making a living.
4. Memory Never Stored
We must not underestimate one of the easiest reasons to forget that information is never stored in memory. This can happen for a variety of reasons: the things we want to remember don’t last long enough for us to absorb. It lasted long enough, but we did not notice it; or we noticed it, but did not pay enough attention to ensure that it will enter long-term memory. People are surprised that even the most common everyday objects know little. Take the United States as an example. Most people will be willing to say that they know what a penny looks like, or at least they will recognize it effortlessly when they see it. In our lifetime, we have seen and processed thousands of pennies. But what is surprising is that people cannot copy a penny very accurately, cannot recall the content, and cannot recognize a penny and a penny changed in a simple way.
5. Weak impression.
The first reason for forgetting is not paying due attention to what we want to remember. As a result, this experience cannot impress us enough. The art of memory is mainly the art of attention. We forgot because we did not pay enough attention to the content to remember in order to imprint it firmly in our minds. Therefore, good memory depends on paying attention to the things to remember. Since one person cannot handle more than one thing at a time, so concentrate on the things you want to remember.
6. Disuse.
The second reason for memory failure is to invalidate the tracking, or to refresh the memory and not reuse it. A lot of what we learned is almost forgotten once we learn. The little bits left after that were forgotten more slowly. Ebbinghaus, a psychologist who was engaged in the most important early work on memory, found that after an hour, 56% of the material he studied was forgotten. But after nine hours, only 8% was forgotten; after two days, it only increased by 6%, and after a month, it increased by 7%. In other words, about 70% of the forgotten amount in the first month was forgotten in the first hour of the month. Therefore, the most economical way is to refresh our memory of certain things as soon as possible after the fact, rather than waiting for a period of time.
7. Repression.
There is also a way to forget painful memories unconsciously Called "repression". Suppression is maintaining unacceptable thoughts From consciousness, that is, "unconscious". It is unconscious We prevent ourselves from being aware of certain processes Tendency to be active in the mind. This happens when two forces in the mind exist at the same time. Opposing each other, the desire to remember is strongly opposed Resist or unwilling to recall.
8. Drugs
Regardless of whether there are medicines taken with or without medical evidence, it can cause memory loss.
9. Smoking
Mrs. E.C said: "I learned quickly, and then I quickly forgot. I was worse More than ever, because I just quit smoking for more than 50 years Sometimes I smoke 50 cigarettes a day. I just can't concentrate Don't smoke. Hope you can help me forget my needs! " There is no evidence that long-term heavy smoking is the cause Damaged memory. But it is very possible. After all, toxic substances Just like H.M.
The government often reminds us that it seriously damages our health. Of course, does this include the health of the brain and nervous system?
10. Some information never gets into the memory bank.
It only achieves sensory input or working memory. why? You did not pay attention to it. You really didn't hear it. You don't understand you don't care much about remembering it. You are distracted by other things. You don’t need to remember it.
11. Memories that do enter the memory bank may be overlaid with subsequent similar information that makes the original memory irretrievable.
People often say "I don't even remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday" to describe their lack of memory. If you eat similar types of breakfast foods day after day, you may forget what you ate in each particular morning, and the memory of eating croissants baked by a French female daughter is still very strong.
12. Information for which you have few associations and little background knowledge is harder to remember. For example, if you are just a beginner who has played the bridge game, you will find it difficult to remember any particular hand dealt during the game night, but the bridge expert can accurately recall most of the hands with special significance.
13. Some information may be remembered only when the proper cues are available, and those cues are not part of everyday life. For example, you may think that you have forgotten many eighth grade classmates until you find an old photo or go to a class reunion.
14. Who we are influences how we remember.
Many people think that their memory is a true portrayal of what happened, and feel frustrated or confused due to the conflict of other people's memories. Interpersonal differences affect information coding and affect the way.
We remember; our background, knowledge, training, attitude towards life, age, gender and prejudice all affect our interpretation of events and make them remember. When two people have different memories of things, they may argue about who is "forgetting". In fact, the difference in recall may be due to the different perspectives and experiences of related personnel.
15. Some pieces of remembered information may be assembled incorrectly.
Information fragments may be recalled, but they will be disorganized. For example, you describe to your daughter the time when Uncle John fell from a tree. She didn't remember it, and you said that Aunt Rose didn't remember it either. A few months later, you were surprised to hear your daughter tell the same story and said: "I heard it from Aunt Rose."
16. Some memories fade away.
They are not always available. For example, if you learned a foreign language in high school, you may remember or recognize certain words you learned. However, you may not remember or even recognize many other words that you once knew.
References
Fogler, Janet and Lynn Stern. 1988. Improving Your Memory How to Remember What You’re Starting to Forget 4th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dudley, Geoffrey a.. 1986. Double Your Learning Power: Sound Advice To Help You Improve
The Quality of Your Memory.
Loftus, Elizabeth. 1944. Memory: New Insights Into How We Remember And Why We Forget. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company