Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
A Theory About Why We Forget What We Once Knew. |
| Authors: |
Wixted, John T. |
| Source: |
Current Directions in Psychological Science. Feb2005, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p6-9. 4p. |
| Subjects: |
Memory, Systemic memory hypothesis, Paired associate learning, Psychology of learning, Tranquilizing drugs, Psychopharmacology, Cognitive neuroscience |
| Abstract: |
Traditional theories of forgetting assume that everyday forgetting is a cue-overload phenomenon, and the primary laboratory method used for investigating that phenomenon has long been the A-B, A-C paired-associates procedure. A great deal of research in psychology, psychopharmacology, and neuroscience suggests that this approach to the study of forgetting may not be very relevant to the kind of interference that induces most forgetting in everyday life. An alternative interference theory holds that recently formed memories that have not yet had a chance to consolidate are vulnerable to the interfering force of mental activity and memory formation, even if the interfering activity does not involve material similar to what was previously learned. This account helps to explain why sleep, alcohol, and benzodiazepines all forestall forgetting of a recently learned list, and it is consistent with recent work on the variables that affect the induction and maintenance of long-term potentiation in the hippocampus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: |
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
