PSYCHOLOGY

Memory Disorders/Dysfunctions Memory loss has long been considered as a result of aging, but now physicians believe that there must be some pathological reasons as well, that cause memoryimpairment: “Memory Cognitive Impairment” (MCI). Although the suffering individuals are capable of doing every day tasks independently, they also heavily rely on using diaries, calendars, reminders etc. Amnesia •  Greek word which means “forgetfulness”. •  Loss of memory with other mental difficulties •  In old age, people are unable to retrieve memories. •  Includes two types of amnesia.   1.  Retrograde amnesia 2.  Anterograde amnesia]   Dementia •  Severe and rare disease, mostly affects people in their 60’s and the risk is doubled every 5 years after 60; at 80, one out of every five people develops dementia. •  Symptoms may include repeating things several times, speech problems, intellectual problems, and inability to remember the skills le...

Theories of Forgetting Why do we forget??? o Several theories have been posed to explain this phenomenon: 1.  Decay theory of forgetting 2.  Interference theory of forgetting 3.  Repression Decay Theory of Forgetting The oldest concept which states that stored information decays and is disintegrated with the passage of time. Criticism against the decay theory 1) It can be taken as a general explanation of how forgetting takes place, but can not be accepted as the actual reason, i.e. the process of forgetting. 2) At times recollection of memories occurs after a long passage of time, which is an experimentally proven fact, and this theory fails to explain this phenomenon.   As decay theory could not explain the actual process of forgetting, another theory emerged, called interference theory of forgetting. Interference Theory of Forgetting •  Interference results when the recall of the learned phenomena is blocked/ displaced by other information. • ...

Single Process Approach Some psychologists do not agree with the idea of three sequential stages of memory; they had a single process approach i.e., levels-of- processing theory.   Levels-of- Processing Theory •  What is most important in the process of memorizing or learning material is the degree to which the material is mentally analyzed. •  How much of new information will be remembered will be determined by the extent or amount of information processing that takes place when new material is encountered. •  The information will be more and more likely to beremembered as the initial processing becomes more and more intense. Information that is paid little attention will not be processed thoroughly, will remain at the shallow level of memory, and will be forgotten soon. On the other hand information that receives greater attention is processed thoroughly; such information enters the deeper level of memory. Shallow Level Memory This is the physical and sens...