Forgetting typically involves a failure in memory retrieval. While the information is somewhere in your long-term memory, you are not able to actually retrieve and remember it. Why Time Plays a Key Role in Forgetting Psychologist

Hermann Ebbinghaus was one of the first to scientifically study forgetting.

Other Question and Answers that can be helpful for you

1. What do psychologists mean by forgetting?

Psychologists generally use the term forgetting to refer to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in long- term memory. Munn (1967) defines forgetting as “the loss, permanent or temporary, of the ability to recall or recognise something learned earlier”.

2. Why do we forget things?

Of course, many factors can contribute to forgetting. Sometimes you might be distracted when you learn new information, which might mean that you never truly retain the information long enough to remember it later. Well-known memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus has proposed for key explanations for why forgetting occurs.

3. Is there evidence to support the theory of forgetting?

There is considerable evidence to support this theory of forgetting from laboratory experiments. The ecological validity of these experiments can be questioned, but their findings are supported by evidence from outside the laboratory. For example, many people say they can’t remember much about their childhood or their school days.

4. Does forgetting help or hurt memory?

More broadly, forgetting helps memory. People who are better able to prune away irrelevant events are also better able to remember pertinent events, a phenomenon known as adaptive forgetting. Clearly, forgetting can be troublesome, especially given the importance people place on being remembered.