Retrieve or Forget!

Memories Activity
Directions: Read the question or scenario and respond honestly. Your goal is to describe the memory or situation as clearly as possible. Once you have finished,
you will use your notes to identify the vocabulary term for memory retrieval or forgetting within the scenario.

Measuring Retention or
Student Response Term
Retrieval Cue?

1. You’re testing how well someone knows you.

Create a short answer question he/she/they must
answer to prove they truly know you.

2. Why do you like multiple choice questions?

3. Describe a moment when you relearned something.

How fast did it take you to relearn the skill or
information?
 Measuring Retention or
Student Response Term
Retrieval Cue?
4. Using the image, fill in the missing word:

5. Have you ever woken up from a dream,

remembered it so vividly, and then 20 minutes later,
you couldn’t piece it together? Then at the end of
the day you lay down to go to bed and then some
details of the dream “came back” to your mind?

6. Close your eyes and imagine the playground of the

elementary school you went to. What do you see?
Who’s there? What was your teacher’s name?

7. Think back to the story Ms. Sponga told on the first

day of the unit (the 17-year old youth). Did you
remember more information from the beginning of
the story or the end? Explain.
8. Describe a moment when you were so mad at
someone and then while you were angry, you
remembered a list of everything they ever did to
make you upset in the past.
 Forgetting or Failure to
Student Response Term
Retrieve?

9. Let’s say you have a list of things you need to get

done. Have you ever prioritized the items you
wanted to do and then forgot about the ones you
didn’t want to do? Give an example.

10. Describe a moment when you put something down,

walked away, and then couldn’t find it two seconds
later.

11. Why do you think you don’t remember every SINGLE

memory you made in middle school?

12. Describe a moment when new information made it

difficult to remember old information (info you
already learned).

13. Describe a moment when old information made it

difficult to remember new information.