LESSON THREE

REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING

3.0 INTRODUCTION
The classroom experiences show that learners forget the information they
acquire or learn. The teacher is a witness that the majority of learners in
most of the tests taken hardly ever get full marks. The explanation for
this phenomenon is that between the time material is learned or even
revised and the time the test is taken some information is lost through
forgetting.

In this lesson I have discussed why forgetting occurs as well as how

memory can be improved. I have drawn heavily from the behaviorism and
information processing theories.

3.1 OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson the student will be able to:
 Explain why forgetting occurs using the disuse theory.
 Describe two types of interference’s that cause forgetting.
 Explain the importance of attention.
 Discuss the role played by rehearsal in promoting memory.
Discuss various methods learners could use improve memory.

3.2 WHY STUDENTS FORGET THE CONTENT THEY LEARN

Educational experience show that some things are remembered very well,
others are ‘there’ but sometimes difficult to find while still others are
completely forgotten. A good teacher should know why this happens so
that he can try and create conditions that promote memory all the time.

Different theories give different explanations as to what causes forgetting.

I have discussed the behavioristic theory and the cognitive theory

3.3 THE BEHAVIORISTIC THEORY

The behaviorists developed the following explanations:

The disuse model and the interference model.

3.3.1 The Disuse Theory

This theory advocates that people forget the S-R connections or
associations made previously because they grow rusty or fade away
through lack of use. This concept can be explained through the Pavlovian
or Skinnerian experiments:
 In Pavlov’s classical conditioning it refers to the withdrawal of
reinforcement. If the food which served as the reinforcer to keep
the association between the bell and the food was removed
extinction occurred.
  If the dog was subjected to this state for long i.e. the bell ringing
without the accompaniment of the food, the stimulus-response
connections were lost. In Skinners operant conditioning if the rat
continued to press the bar without getting food as a reinforcer this
bar pressing behavior disappeared because the connections or
associations between it and food was lost.
 This information can be applied in the classroom situation for the
purpose of helping the teacher to understand the dynamics
involved in forgetting and remembering.
 Just like Pavlov’s dogs and Skinners rats would forget the S-R
associations they had learned, pupils too forget what they learn
under similar principles.

Application
According to this theory, the teacher should ensure that learners
rehearse information under conditions of reinforcement.

Rehearsal
 Learners who do not rehearse content often lose the S-R
connections they had learned. Rehearsing refers to the constant
repetition and review of content.
 For rehearsal to benefit learners, the teacher should give them
time and place to do their rehearsal (Study time).
 The teacher should also ensure that the learners rehearse content,
which is meaningful to them, because there is the tendency to
forget content if it is meaningless.
 There is the need to show learners how the content they are
learning is related to what was learned earlier. These activities help
to stamp in the S-R connections already learned keeping them in
memory and hence minimizing forgetting.

Reinforcement

 Remembering is best promoted if learning is reinforced.

 Withdrawal of reinforcement causes extinction, which is the

disappearance of the learned response.

 If a learner displays the desirable behavior without being

reinforced, forgetting occurs.

 The teacher should never lose sight of the fact that reinforcement
strengthens behavior and makes it more probable. Making it more
probable means that that behavior is given the chance to occur
again.
3.3.2 Interference model

This is another behavioristic explanation of forgetting. According to this

model learners forget content that they learn because others interfere.
For example learners will forget old content because new content
interferes with its memory. They will also forget new content because old
content interferes with its memory.

 When old content interferes with the memory of new content, we

call this proactive inhibition.

 If new content interferes with the memory of old content we refer to

this as retroactive inhibition.

Proactive inhibition

 Proactive inhibition is the forgetting that occurs when old

information makes it difficult to remember new information. For
example a teacher gives learners a list of words and asks them to
study it. Call it list A.

 The teacher does not test for the memory of this list at this time.
He gives the learners another list of words to study. Call it list B.

 Then the teacher tests the learners on the recall of the second list
of words (List B) not the first (List A).

 What normally happens is that as the learners try to recall words

on the second list they experience some mix-up.

 They remember some words and they forget others. At the same
time some of the words from list A are recalled.

 The words from list A are said to interfere with the recall of List B.
This interfere is called proactive inhibition because new
information acts forward interfere with old information. .

Retroactive inhibition

 Retroactive inhibition occurs when new learnings make it difficult

to remember old content.
 First the teacher gives learners list A. They study it but are not
tested immediately.
 Then he gives them list B. they study this list as well.
  Then the teacher tests them on the recall of list A.
 As the learners try to recall words on list A, they will forget some
of them.
 At the same time they will recall some of the words from list B.
 This is because the memory of list B will interfere will with the
recall of list A.
 This interference is retroactive because later or old memory acts
back words to interfere with the new information

Activity

Give learners the following lists of words. The first two lists to test for proactive
interference and the other two to test for retroactive information.

List A List B
Cat Cut Dip Deep
Hut Hat Reed Rind
Fat Fit Feat Feet
Rut Rat Ship Sheep
Further Father Leap Reap
Goat Gate Rate Late
Lot Rot Creek Crack
Cup Cap Arrive Alive

Application

The teacher should take note that both retroactive and proactive
interference are greater when the items in memory are similar.
Therefore to promote memory he should do the following:

 Make new learning clear by bringing out the similarities and

differences between the old and new information.

 A learning task must be practiced until it is mastered and even over-

learned.

 The principle is that partially learned tasks interfere more with other
partially learned tasks.

 Over learning means going beyond the mastery of a task and ensuring
that the content is at the “finger tips”. This means that content can be
recalled with ease.
3.4 COGNITIVE EXPLANATION

According to the cognitive theory. The key to memory is the way in which
the material is coded and organized, as it is stored in the long-term
memory bank. Something important happens at every stage of
information processing to either promote memory or hinder it.

At the short-term sensory storage the key to memory at this level is

attention. For information to be retained in memory it should be focused
on and rehearsed briefly so as to be registered for further processing.
Any information that is not attended to is lost or forgotten.

The short term memory/working memory

The most important process at this level is rehearsal. Rehearsal takes
two forms depending on the reasons why we want to retain the
information in memory.

Maintenance rehearsal

 Sometimes we want to keep information in memory briefly and

then discard it. For example we meet old friend in town and gives
us his cell phone number.

 Before we enter this number in our own cell phone or in our diary
we shall rehearse it.

 Once the number is entered in the relevant place we stop

rehearsing it.

 Another example to illustrate this type of rehearsal is a shopping

list. We may want to go to the market to buy some items e.g. ripe
bananas, cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, green maize and
carrots.

 Before we make our shopping list we rehearse this items until we

write all of them on paper.

 Again once they are on paper we stop rehearsing them.

 These two examples illustrate maintenance rehearsal. This is

rehearsal of information, which is not intended to move to the
long-term memory bank.

 It involves repetition of information over and over again.

 When the information is no longer needed it is forgotten.

Elaborative rehearsal

Elaborative rehearsal is used for all the information that we wish to

transfer to the long-term memory bank. This rehearsal involves repetition
of information and linking it with information already existing in the
long-term memory. These two processes ensure that the information is
catalogued and filed in the long-term memory.

The Long term memory Bank

The following memories exist at this bank:

 Declarative memory. This is memory for things that can be expressed

in words e.g. this is a dog, my grandmother died last year.

 Semantic memory. This is memory for general facts e.g. the sun rises
from the east..

 Episode memory. This is the memory for personal experiences e.g.

when I was coming to class, I me wit my friends.

 Procedural memory for actions and skills e.g. how to prepare meal or.

At this memory bank information is organized in categories.

 Items that are similar are stored close together in a method that is
close to cataloguing.

 For each item in memory there is an imaginary index card which is

appropriately catalogued.

 Forgetting occurs if there are cataloguing errors i.e. a card can be

catalogued in the wrong place or a card can get lost.

What causes cataloguing errors?

 Cataloguing errors can occur if a learner takes in too much

information within a short time.

 For example if you attend a function and are introduced to about

ten people within a short time you will find it difficult to match the
right names and faces due to cognitive bottlenecks.

 But if you are introduced to one person every day for tend days
you will not have a problem remembering each one of them
because you have processed all the information properly.
  If two things are similar one may be remembered in the place of
the other.

Application
In order to ensure that content learned is remembered it is important to
give it time to be processed at all memory levels until it enters the long
term memory bank because anything that gets there is permanent.

3.5 IMPROVING MEMORY

There are a few methods that learners can use in order to improve their
memory.

3.5.1 Increasing attention

As we have noted above, attention refers to focusing on information and

registering it, isolating it from all possible distracters. This is an
important prerequisite for all memory. Inorder to increase attention, one
should do the following:

 Select a study environment, which does not contain too many

distractions. Distractions will refer to unnecessary noise, heat,
cold, activities and things that appeal to sight. They refer to any
environmental event, which interferes with taking in of
information.

 If learners are studying in a classroom or in a laboratory there

should be minimal distractions.

3.5.2 Rehearsal

Rehearsal refers to the repetition of what has been learned in the school
setting it may refer to what is commonly referred to as study.

 As learners conduct their study it is important to ensure that they

engage in repetition of correct responses with the awareness of what
the responses relate to. They should not engage in repetition of
meaningless material. For the study to be successful, the teachers
should ensure that:

 The school organize study timetables

 Give the learners the time and classrooms convenient for the purpose
 They should train learners how to conduct individual study, for
example, how to pick out important facts, review them immediately
and again later

 Learners should be trained on how to engage in distributed practice

or massed practice depending on reasons for study.

Distributed practice involves taking short periods of study at a time

and taking a break after each period. This method is very beneficial
when the learners want to process information and store it in memory
permanently.

 The short periods of study could take two hours of study at a time
and the breaking to do a totally unrelated activity before resuming
the study again.

 The unrelated activity could be taking a shower, a walk, a snack or

even a nap.

 This activity should be one that helps one to rest as well as reward
oneself. Massed practice refers to sitting for long hours of study

Massed practice refers to sitting for long hours of study e.g.

studying throughout the night. SQ3R method

 The learner can be introduced to the model of study developed by

Robinson (1970) called SQ3R survey the material through once Raise
questions about it

 Read it looking for answers

 Recite it and by doing so committing it to memory

 Review it

 By the time the learner is through with the last step the material is
well committed in memory.

3.5.3 The use of mnemonic devices

Mnemonic Devices-techniques that have been developed to improve

memory-particularly memory for bits of unrelated information.
The Pegword method

 One mnemonic is the pegword method ni-‘mon-iks. To use it you

must first learn a series of words to go with numbers for example
one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree and four is door. The words
and numbers rhyme.

 When you want to learn a list of unrelated words you think of some
image that combines the pegword and the word you are trying to
remember.

 Let us imagine that you wish to remember a grocery list, if the first
item on the list is soap you imagine a bun covered with soap
bubbles.

 If the second item is apples you picture a shoe stuffed with apples.
Eggs: -you imagine a tree with eggs for fruits.

 If the fourth item is Cabbage: -you imagine a door with a large

cabbage as the lock knob.

The Loci method

Another technique is the loci method. This was a method used by ancient
Romans.

 First you think of a location.

 Then for each item you want to remember you think of a
representative image something that symbolizes that item to
you
 Then you imagine each image in place in the location e.g.

Bedroom floor-------------------------soap bubbles

Your bed--------------------------------two large apples
Your dressing table---------------------filled with eggs
Your coffee table----------------------two huge carrots
The clothes wardrobe----------------cabbage hanging there

These techniques use imagery- a representation in thought of visual

scenes forming a vivid, unusual image of each object, which is
unforgettable.
3.6 SUMMARY
In this lesson Remembering and forgetting have been discussed and the following theories
The behavioristic theory which developed
 The disuse model of forgetting
 The interference model
 Proactive
 Retroactive
 The information processing theory which focuses on the importance of
 Attention
 Rehearsal
 Maintenance rehearsal
 Elaborative rehearsal
 Cataloguing
 Also examined are methods for improving memory
 Selecting a study environment that enhances attention
 Distributed practice
 Massed practice
 The SQ3R method
 Use of mnemonic devices
 Pegword
 Loci

3.7 KEYWORDS
Disuse theory-forgetting information due to lack of use

Elaborative rehearsal - repetition of information for the purpose cataloguing it in the

long term memory

Forgetting - the loss of information from memory through failure to retrieve it from
memory.

Interference-forgetting information caused by inhibition either proactive or retroactive

Loci method-committing familiar places in memory in order to aid memory of unrelated

information.

Maintenance rehearsal - repetition of information again and again for the purpose of
retaining it in memory.

Mnemonic pegwords - words that are memorized to help a person remember a list of
unrelated words

Remembering-the ability to recall information by means of retrieval memory forgetting

the loss of information from memory through failure to retrieve it from memory.
3.8 REVIEW/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1) What will you advise learners to do in order to minimize forgetting

caused by:
a) Disuse.
b) Interference.
2) Discuss the role played by the following processes in aiding memory:
a) Attention.
b) Maintenance rehearsal.
c) Elaborative rehearsal.
3) Explain how you could help learners to engage in practice of learned
material.