Forgetting

Forgetting is the loss or failure to retrieve information that was previously learned or experienced. It can result from fading memory traces, interference, or difficulty accessing stored information.

Memory trace: A hypothetical physical or functional change in the nervous system that represents a memory. Forgetting may reflect weakening or disruption of the changes that support a memory.
Memory: The capacity to encode, retain, and retrieve information from past experience. Forgetting is defined by what happens to information across memory processes.
Spacing effect: The finding that learning is often retained better when study sessions are distributed over time. Spaced practice reduces later forgetting compared with massed repetition.
Proactive interference: Interference in which older learning makes it harder to remember newer information. Earlier memories can obstruct access to recently learned material.
Retrieval failure: The inability to access stored information when needed, despite its continued availability in memory. It distinguishes inaccessible memories from information that has been erased.
Encoding: The process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory. Information that was never encoded cannot later be forgotten in the strict sense.
Testing effect: The improvement in long-term retention produced by retrieving information through tests or practice questions. Retrieval practice can slow forgetting more effectively than repeated restudy.
Retroactive interference: Interference in which newer learning makes it harder to remember older information. Later memories can disrupt recall of information learned before them.
Interference theory: The account that memories become harder to recall when other memories compete with them. Competing memories can block retrieval without destroying the original information.
Storage: The retention of encoded information over time. A storage failure differs from a retrieval failure, though both appear as forgetting.

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