Forgetting is a concept that we’re all familiar with.
“I forgot where I put my keys…”
“I forgot we had a test today…”
“I forget what happened…”
There isn’t one specific reason that can be attributed to as the “cause of forgetting,” there are actually many factors and concepts of forgetting that can be used to explain it. Amnesia, loss of long-term memory associated with trauma or disease, is one such example of forgetting. There are two types of amnesia: anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Anterograde amnesia prevents new information from being remembered and is commonly caused by brain trauma. In this case, information prior to the injury can be remembered. People with this kind of amnesia are unable to form semantic memories (recall of words, concepts, and numbers) or episodic memories (recollection of personal experiences) but can form new procedural memories (performing actions and skills). For example, they may be able to read the same thing over and over again because they don’t remember reading it before. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory for events that happened before the injury. People with this type of amnesia can’t remember most of their past. They have problems remembering episodic memories. An example of this is not being able to remember who your family is or the people around you. You’re unable to recognize them even though they were present before your injury.
Another reason that we may forget is due to encoding failure. This is when we can’t remember something because it was never stored, or properly stored, in our memory from the beginning. Encoding is the input of sensory information into the memory system. As information is received, it is coded, organized, and connected to other concepts. It can occur through automatic or effortful processing. Automatic encoding is information that can be recalled easily and done without conscious awareness. Effortful encoding requires a lot of work and attention. To remember most things, we have to do effortful encoding but we don’t usually do that. There are so many little things that we’re exposed to, like the front of a coin, but we never really remember what the front of a specific coin looks like. If we don’t encode something, it doesn’t go to our long-term memory, then we eventually end up forgetting it. An example of encoding failure would be like trying to find something in your belongings that you never even bought in the first place. The fact that you never actually bought that item failed to encode properly leading you to forget that you never bought it.
Interference is another concept of forgetting. This is when information is stored in our memory but it’s inaccessible. There are two types: proactive interference and retroactive interference. Proactive interference is like when it’s a new year but you continue to write the date of the previous year. This is when old information interferes with the recall of newly learned information. Retroactive interference is when information that is learned recently interferes with the recall of information learned in the past. This could be like when you study a new concept from a chapter in your textbook but forget the topic of last week’s chapter or only remember it minimally because you’re more focused on being able to recall the current topic.
There are more concepts of forgetting but these are only some ideas as to why we forget. By knowing more about our brain and capabilities, we can apply this information on becoming more aware of our bodily systems and memory, possibly helping us out in the future. It’s also just beneficial to have an answer as to why you already forgot last week’s textbook reading before your exam…
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