Describe and Discuss Theories of Forgetting.
Forgetting is the inability to recall or recognise information that was once stored in the memory and is now not available or cannot be accessed. There are four main theories to forgetting; trace decay, cue dependant, displacement and interference.
Displacement seeks to explain forgetting in the short term memory. According to Shiffrin and Atkinson’s model of memory, the short term memory has certain characteristics such as limited capacity so if information is not rehearsed, it would be forgotten. When the short term memory is “full”, new information displaces or “pushes out” old information and takes its place. (Miller)
Waugh and Norman used the serial probe technique to investigate displacement. They asked participants to listen to a set of numbers after which participants were given a probe (one of the numbers from the list) and asked what number came next. If the probe was near the end of the list, then recall was good. If the probe was early in the list, then recall was poor. This demonstrates that early numbers were displaced by the later ones.
One advantage of displacement is that Waugh and Norman’s serial probe technique found that recall of the following number in a sequence is better when at the end of the 16 digit series. Early numbers are displaced by later ones but there are fewer digits at the end of the series to displace earlier numbers. This is an advantage as it clearly supports displacement theory.
One disadvantage of displacement is that even though it provides evidence that forgetting is due to displacement, there could be other reasons to forgetting such as trace decay where memory is lost as a result of the automatic decay or fading of memory trace. This was supported by Waugh and Norman who conducted another experiment in which they presented information at different speeds. Those presented faster was recalled better. This shows that they had less time to decay. This is a disadvantage as it shows that they could be other possible
Displacement seeks to explain forgetting in the short term memory. According to Shiffrin and Atkinson’s model of memory, the short term memory has certain characteristics such as limited capacity so if information is not rehearsed, it would be forgotten. When the short term memory is “full”, new information displaces or “pushes out” old information and takes its place. (Miller)
Waugh and Norman used the serial probe technique to investigate displacement. They asked participants to listen to a set of numbers after which participants were given a probe (one of the numbers from the list) and asked what number came next. If the probe was near the end of the list, then recall was good. If the probe was early in the list, then recall was poor. This demonstrates that early numbers were displaced by the later ones.
One advantage of displacement is that Waugh and Norman’s serial probe technique found that recall of the following number in a sequence is better when at the end of the 16 digit series. Early numbers are displaced by later ones but there are fewer digits at the end of the series to displace earlier numbers. This is an advantage as it clearly supports displacement theory.
One disadvantage of displacement is that even though it provides evidence that forgetting is due to displacement, there could be other reasons to forgetting such as trace decay where memory is lost as a result of the automatic decay or fading of memory trace. This was supported by Waugh and Norman who conducted another experiment in which they presented information at different speeds. Those presented faster was recalled better. This shows that they had less time to decay. This is a disadvantage as it shows that they could be other possible