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Psychology
Grade 9-12
Forgetting & Memory Errors Cheat Sheet
A printable reference covering encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure, interference, motivated forgetting, and memory distortions for grades 9-12.
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Forgetting and memory errors explain why people lose information, confuse details, or remember events inaccurately. This cheat sheet helps psychology students separate normal forgetting from memory distortion. It is useful for reviewing experiments, studying for tests, and applying memory concepts to everyday life. The topic matters because human memory is reconstructive, not a perfect recording.
Key Facts
- Encoding failure happens when information never enters long-term memory because attention or processing was too weak.
- Storage decay means a memory trace weakens over time, especially when information is not used or rehearsed.
- Retrieval failure occurs when a memory exists but cannot be accessed because the right cue is missing.
- Proactive interference means old learning disrupts new learning, while retroactive interference means new learning disrupts old learning.
- The forgetting curve shows that memory loss is fastest soon after learning and slows down over time.
- Recognition is usually easier than recall because recognition provides more retrieval cues.
- Misinformation can change memory when misleading information is introduced after an event.
- Source monitoring errors happen when a person remembers information but misidentifies where it came from.
Vocabulary
- Encoding Failure
- Encoding failure is forgetting caused by information not being properly processed into memory in the first place.
- Retrieval Cue
- A retrieval cue is a clue, context, word, image, or feeling that helps bring a memory back to awareness.
- Interference
- Interference is forgetting caused when one memory competes with or disrupts another memory.
- Misinformation Effect
- The misinformation effect occurs when new and misleading information alters a person's memory of an event.
- Source Amnesia
- Source amnesia is remembering a fact or event but forgetting or misidentifying where the information came from.
- Repression
- Repression is the proposed unconscious blocking of painful or threatening memories from awareness.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing encoding failure with retrieval failure is wrong because encoding failure means the memory was never stored well, while retrieval failure means it may be stored but inaccessible.
- Assuming memory works like a video recording is wrong because memory is reconstructed and can be changed by expectations, emotion, and later information.
- Mixing up proactive and retroactive interference is wrong because proactive interference moves forward from old to new, while retroactive interference moves backward from new to old.
- Thinking confidence proves accuracy is wrong because people can feel very confident about memories that contain errors or misinformation.
- Ignoring context and cues is wrong because recall often improves when the testing situation matches the learning situation.
Practice Questions
- 1 A student learns a new locker combination, 18-4-32, but keeps entering last year's combination, 12-4-30. Which type of interference is shown?
- 2 In a study, 80 students correctly recall a word list after 5 minutes, but only 50 correctly recall it after 24 hours. How many fewer students recalled it after 24 hours?
- 3 A witness first remembers a car as blue, but after hearing another person call it green, later reports that it was green. Which memory error is most likely involved?
- 4 Explain why two honest eyewitnesses can remember the same event differently without either person intentionally lying.