factors leading to forgetting

Forgetting is not caused by an individual factor rather it is the handiwork of collective effort of several factors.

1. Factors Leading to Forgetting
Dr Rajesh Verma
Assistant Professor in Psychology
Govt. College Adampur, Hisar (Haryana)

2. Meaning
Literarymeaning–Failstoremember.
Meaninginpsychologicalparlance–Inabilityto
recallstored
informationin
tothepresent
stateofmind.

3. Definition
AccordingtoBhatia,“Forgettingisthefailureof
theindividualtoreviveinconsciousnessanideaorgroup
ofideaswithoutthehelpoftheoriginalstimuli”.
AccordingtoDrever(1952)“Forgettingmeans
failureatanytime
torecallexperience,
whenattemptingto
doso,ortoperform
anactionpreviously
learnt”.

4. Introduction
HermannEbbinghaus(1913)pioneeredthe
studyof‘forgetting’.Hecreatednonsense
syllables (consonant-vowel-consonant)
(meaninglesswords)totesthismemory.Outof
hisexperimentsonhimselfhedrewacurve
whichis
famously
calledas
‘Forgetting
Curve’.

5. Factors Leading to Forgetting
Forgettingisnotcausedbyanindividualfactor
ratheritisthehandiworkofcollectiveeffortofseveral
factors.
(i)Psychological
factors,
(ii)Biologicalfactors,
(iii)Socialfactors,
(iv)Factorsrelatedto
natureofInformation,
(v)Environmental
factors.

6. (i)PsychologicalFactors–Mostoftheforgetting
occursduetopsychologicalfactors.Theforgettingthat
occursduetopsychologicalfactorsistermedas
PsychologicalAmnesia.Theseare:-
(a)Encodingfailure,
(b)Storagefailure,
(c)Motivational
forgetting(Suppression
isconsciousformof
forgettingwhile
Repressionis
unconsciousform),

7. (d)Dearthofadequatecognitiveprocessing,attention,
focus,
(e)Disuse,
(f)Lack&Delay
inrehearsal,
(g)Interference,
(h)Improperor
lackofconsolidation,
(i)Lackof
Context.

8. (ii)Biologicalfactors–Memoryissubdomainof
cognitivesystemwhichismaintainedandmanagedby
neuralnetworks.Theobstructionofanytypeinthese
neuralnetworkscanleadstoforgetting.Theobstructions
canbeoffollowingtypes:-
(a)Damagedue
toinjury,
(b)Damagedue
toinfectionor
disease,

9. (c)Obstructionduetomentalhealthissues,
(d)Damageduetodrugoverdose,
(e)Damageduetotrauma,
(f)Naturaldecay
duetoaging,
(g)Lackof
physicalactivity
andproperdiet.

10. (iii)Socialfactors–Forgettingisoppositetomemory
wherememoryissocialprocessandsocialinteraction
influencesmemory(Barber&Mather,2013).
Therefore,socialfactorsalsofacilitateforgetting.
(a)Levelofinterpersonalrelations,
(b)Levelofsocialinteraction,
(c)Interactionand
gender(interactionwith
samegenderfacilitate
forgettingwhilewith
differentgenderinhibits
forgetting(Barber&
Mathra,2013),
(d)Collectiveforgetting.

11. (iv)FactorsrelatedtonatureofInformation–Thenature
ofinformationlearnedalsoinfluencesforgetting.The
meaningfulitemsarelikelytoberememberedlongerthan
themeaninglessinformation.
(a)Informationof
non-interest,
(b)Informationlearned
forcefully,
(c)Meaninglessnessof
information,
(d)Noveltyofinformation,
(e)Emotionprovokingabilityofinformation,
(f)AutobiographicalInformation,
(g)Levelofabstractnessininformation,
(h)Styleofpresentationofinformation[written,spoken,
sungetc.].

12. (v)Environmentalfactors–Theforgettingis
alsoinfluencedbythefactorsofimmediate
environment[physicalsurroundings].
(a)Externalcontextsuchasplace,smell,
situations,soundetc.
(b)Shiftingof
physicallocations
(Radvanskyetal.
2010).

13. References:
1. NCERT,XIPsychologyTextbook.
2. Beiner,Guy(2018).ForgetfulRemembrance:Social
ForgettingandVernacularHistoriographyofaRebellionin
Ulster.OxfordUniversityPress.ISBN9780198749356.
3. Brown,J.(1958).
Sometestsofthedecay
theoryofimmediatememory.
QuarterlyJournalof
Experimentalpsychology,
10,12-21.

14. [email protected]
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