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Query: UMLS:C0598853 (forgetting)
 3,232 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Three hypotheses of forgetting from immediate memory were tested: time-based decay, decreasing temporal distinctiveness, and interference. The hypotheses were represented by 3 models of serial recall: the primacy model, the SIMPLE (scale-independent memory, perception, and learning) model, and the SOB (serial order in a box) model, respectively. The models were fit to 2 experiments investigating the effect of filled delays between items at encoding or at recall. Short delays between items, filled with articulatory suppression, led to massive impairment of memory relative to a no-delay baseline. Extending the delays had little additional effect, suggesting that the passage of time alone does not cause forgetting. Adding a choice reaction task in the delay periods to block attention-based rehearsal did not change these results. The interference-based SOB fit the data best; the primacy model overpredicted the effect of lengthening delays, and SIMPLE was unable to explain the effect of delays at encoding. The authors conclude that purely temporal views of forgetting are inadequate.
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PMID:Forgetting in immediate serial recall: decay, temporal distinctiveness, or interference? 1872 91

Since McGeoch's (1932) influential article, no accounts of long-term memory have invoked decay as a cause of forgetting. In contrast, multiple accounts of short-term memory (STM) invoke decay, with many appealing to results from the Brown-Peterson paradigm as offering support. Two experiments are reported that used a standard Brown-Peterson task but which scored the data in 2 ways. With traditional scoring (was the entire 3-letter consonant trigram recalled?) performance decreased with increasing delay. With immediate serial recall scoring (e.g., was the first letter recalled first, was the second letter recalled second?), standard position error gradients (Experiment 1), and protrusion gradients (Experiment 2) were observed. That is, when the first letter of the consonant trigram was not recalled first, it was more likely to be recalled second than last. In addition, if a letter from a previous list was mistakenly recalled in a later list, it most likely retained its original position. The presence of such gradients is inconsistent with claims of decay but is predicted by SIMPLE, a local distinctiveness model of memory. Moreover, the presence of such gradients is consistent with the claim that forgetting in the Brown-Peterson paradigm follows the same principles observed in other memory tasks.
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PMID:Positional uncertainty in the Brown-Peterson paradigm. 2573 Jun 41