Forgetting

3 Pages 694 Words

Have you ever wondered why you just can’t remember that word that is on the tip of your tongue? Or have you ever moved to a new house, but you just can’t get your old address out of your head? There are many explanations about why we forget information. The explanations are not all concrete, but they are a good start in understanding the human memory and the way it works.
One of reasons for forgetting can be explained by the theory of Motivated Forgetting. This theory suggests that memories disturb a person in such a way that they subconsciously repress them. Repression is seen as the brain permanently, or in some cases temporarily severing links to memories. This can be seen in adults who have been sexually abused as children, also with people who experience posttraumatic stress syndrome. The only major downfall of this theory is that it still is not understood very well.
Another theory of forgetting is known as the Decay Theory. The Decay Theory associates forgetting over a period of time. It also suggests that the physical structure, which encodes the memory, is easily disturbed and that information presented to the memory initially has very weak patterns, which grow stronger as they are transferred into long-term memory. Some of the downfalls of this theory are that it doesn’t line up with the ability to perform various motor skills even when they are not practiced for a long period of time. This theory is also hard to disprove through experimental results due to the fact that it is difficult to construct an experiment in which the decay theory can be completely ruled out.
A theory that was not discussed within the textbook is the Gestalt Theory. This theory does not attribute memories to being lost, rather that they are changed over a period of time. This theory however is not applicable to research now due to the fact that it has not had reliable experiments and also that it has not proven to be a reliable research. ...