Understanding Memory Decay: Types and Theories
One way of understanding memory is to think about it in terms of stages that describe the length of time that information remains available to us. According to this approach, information begins in sensory memory, moves to short-term memory or working memory, and eventually moves to long-term memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968). But not all information makes it through all three stages; most of it is forgotten. Whether the information moves from shorter-duration memory into longer-duration memory or whether it is lost from memory entirely depends on how the information is attended to and processed.
Stages of Memory
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory refers to the brief storage of sensory information. Sensory memory is a memory buffer that lasts only very briefly and then, unless it is attended to and passed on for more processing, is forgotten.
Iconic Memory
Visual sensory memory is known as iconic memory. Iconic memory was first studied by the psychologist George Sperling (1960). In his research, Sperling showed participants a display of letters in rows, similar to that shown in the figure below. However, the display lasted only about 50 milliseconds (1/20 of a second).
Iconic Memory Task Example
Then, Sperling gave his participants a recall test in which they were asked to name all the letters that they could remember (whole report). Sperling reasoned that the participants had seen all the letters but could remember them only very briefly, making it impossible for them to report them all. To test this idea, in his next experiment, he first showed the same letters, but then after the display had been removed, he signaled to the participants to report only the letters from either the first, second, or third row (partial report). In this condition, the participants now reported almost all the letters in that row. This finding confirmed Sperling’s hunch: participants had access to all of the letters in their iconic memories, and if the task was short enough, they were able to report on the part of the display he asked them to.
In some people iconic memory seems to last longer, a phenomenon known as eidetic imagery (or photographic memory) in which people can report details of an image over long periods of time. These people, who often suffer from psychological disorders such as autism, claim that they can “see” an image long after it has been presented, and can often report accurately on that image.
Echoic Memory
Auditory sensory memory is known as echoic memory. There is also some evidence for eidetic memories in hearing; some people report that their echoic memories persist for unusually long periods of time.
Forgetting and Memory Decay Theories
When a memory of a past experience is not activated for days or months, forgetting tends to occur. Yet it is erroneous to think that memories simply fade over time-the steps involved are far more complex. In seeking to understand forgetting in the context of memory, such auxiliary phenomena as differences in the rates of forgetting for different kinds of information also must be taken into account. It has been suggested that, as time passes, the physiological bases of memory tend to change.
Decay Theory
With disuse, according to this view, the neural engram (the memory trace in the brain) gradually decays or loses its clarity. While such a theory seems reasonable, it would, if left at this point, do little more than restate behavioral evidence of forgetting at the nervous-system level. Decay or deterioration does not seem attributable merely to the passage of time; some underlying physical process needs to be demonstrated. Until a neurochemical basis for memory can be more explicitly described, any decay theory of forgetting must await detailed development.
Interference Theory
A prominent theory of forgetting at the behavioral level is anchored in the phenomenon of interference, or inhibition, which can be either retroactive or proactive. In retroactive inhibition, new learning interferes with the retention of old memories; in proactive inhibition, old memories interfere with the retention of new learning. Both phenomena have great implications for all kinds of human learning.
Proactive and Retroactive Interference
In a typical study of interference, subjects are asked to learn two successive verbal lists. The following day some are asked to recall the first list and others to recall the second. A third (control) group learns only one list and is asked to recall it a day later. People who learn two lists nearly always recall fewer words than those in the control group. Theorists attribute the loss produced by these procedures to interference between list-learning tasks.
When lists are constructed to exhibit varying differences, the degree of interference seems to be related to the amount of similarity. Thus, loss in recall will be reduced when two successive lists have no identical terms. Maximum loss generally will occur when there appears to be heavy (but not complete) overlap in the memory attributes for the two lists. One may recall parts of the first list in trying to remember the second and vice versa. (This breakdown in discrimination may reflect the presence of dominant attributes that are appropriate for items in both lists.)
Discrimination tends to deteriorate as the number of lists increases, retroactive and proactive inhibition increasing correspondingly, suggesting interference at the time of recall. In retroactive inhibition, however, not all of the loss need be attributed to competition at the moment of recall. Some of the first list may be lost to memory in learning the second; this is called unlearning. If one is asked to recall from both lists combined, first-list items are less likely to be remembered than if the second list had not been learned. Learning the second list seems to act backward in time (retroactively) to destroy some memory of the first.
Much effort has been devoted to studying the conditions that affect unlearning, which has become a major topic in interference theory. Retroactive and proactive effects can be quite gross quantitatively. If one learns a list one day and tries to recall it the next, learns a second list and attempts recall for it the following day, learns a third, and so on, recall for each successive list tends to decline. Roughly 80 percent recall may be anticipated for the first list; this declines steeply to about 20 percent for the 10th list. Learning the earlier lists seems to act forward in time (proactively) to inhibit retention of later lists. These proactive phenomena indicate that the more one learns, the more rapidly one forgets.
Similar effects can be demonstrated for retroactive inhibition within just one laboratory session. Such powerful effects have led some researchers to speculate that all forgetting is produced by interference. Any given memory is said to be subject to interference from others established earlier or subsequently. Interference, theoretically, may occur when memories conflict through any attributes.
With a limited group of attributes and an enormous number of memories, it might seem that ordinary attempts at recall would be chaotic. Yet even if all of the memories shared some information, other attributes not held in common could still serve to distinguish them. For example, every memory theoretically is encoded at a different time, and temporal attributes might serve to discriminate otherwise conflicting memories. Indeed, when two apparently conflicting lists are learned several days apart, proactive inhibition is markedly reduced. Assuming that memories are multiply encoded, interference theory need not predict utter confusion in remembering.
Sources of interference are quite pervasive and should not be considered narrowly. For example, all memories seem to be established in specific surroundings or contexts, and subsequent efforts to remember tend to be less effective when the circumstances differ from the original. Alcoholics, when sober, tend to have trouble finding bottles they have hidden while intoxicated; when they drink again, the task is much easier. Some contexts also may be associated with other memories that interfere with whatever it is that one is trying to remember.
Each new memory tends to amalgamate information already in long-term storage. Encoding mechanisms invariably adapt or associate fresh data to information already present, to such an extent that what is encoded may not be a direct representation of incoming stimuli. This is particularly apparent when the input is relatively meaningless; the newly encoded memory comes to resemble those previously established-i.e., it accrues meaning. For example, a nonsense word such as lajor might be encoded as major.
Challenges to Interference Theory
Although interference theory has attracted wide support as an account of forgetting, it must be placed in perspective. Interpretations that emphasize distinctions between short- and long-term memory and that posit control processes for handling information are potentially more comprehensive than interference theory, and the behavioral evidence for interference eventually may be explained within such systems. In addition, a number of predictions derived from interference theory have not been well supported by experiment.
The focus of difficulty lies in the hypothesis that interference from established memories is a major source of proactive inhibition. The laboratory subject is asked to learn tasks with attributes that have varying degrees of conflict with memories established in daily life. Theoretically, the more conflict, the greater the proactive interference to produce forgetting. Yet a number of experiments have failed to provide much support for this prediction.
Interference theory also fails to account for some pathological forms of forgetting. Repression as observed in psychiatric practice, for example, represents almost complete, highly selective forgetting, far beyond that anticipated by interference theorists. Attempts to study repression through laboratory procedures have failed to yield systematic data that could be used to test theoretical conclusions.
The Seven Sins of Memory
Schacter noted that the same brain mechanisms account for memory's sins as well as its strengths, so investigating its negatives exposes its positives. Schacter defined his book's seven sins.
- Transience: The decreasing accessibility of memory over time. While a degree of this is normal with aging, decay of or damage to the hippocampus and temporal lobe can cause extreme forms of it.
- Absent-mindedness: Lapses of attention and forgetting to do things. This sin operates both when a memory is formed (the encoding stage) and when a memory is accessed (the retrieval stage).
- Blocking: Temporary inaccessibility of stored information, such as tip-of-the-tongue syndrome.
- Misattribution: Attribution of memories to incorrect sources or believing that you have seen or heard something you haven't.
- Suggestibility: Incorporation of misinformation into memory due to leading questions, deception, and other causes.
- Bias: Retrospective distortions produced by current knowledge and beliefs.
- Persistence: Unwanted recollections that people can't forget, such as the unrelenting, intrusive memories of post-traumatic stress disorder.
| Sin | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Transience | Decreasing accessibility of memory over time | Forgetting facts or events over time |
| Absent-mindedness | Lapses of attention and forgetting to do things | Forgetting where you put your keys |
| Blocking | Temporary inaccessibility of stored information | Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon |
| Misattribution | Attributing memories to incorrect sources | Believing you saw something you didn't |
| Suggestibility | Incorporating misinformation into memory | False memories due to leading questions |
| Bias | Distorting past memories with current beliefs | Retrospective distortions |
| Persistence | Unwanted, intrusive recollections | Memories of traumatic events |