Memory -Forgetting and Transience

Psychologist  Daniel L. Schachter (2021) describes transience memory as those memories that are lost due to the passage of time. The memory appears to get weaker.

The problem of transience is what we may often call forgetting. It is a typical problem. 

In the history of psychology, early work on forgetting as a function of time was studied experimentally by German philosopher, Hermann Ebbinghaus who learned nonsense syllables then plotted his recall over time. A month after learning a list he had forgotten 75% but he had lost 60% after 9 hours! Thus, after the initial loss, the rate of loss declined. Since then, many psychological scientists have studied memory and forgetting in many ways both in labs and field (real life) settings.

Memory for words can distinguish between older adults with and without Alzheimer's disease.

An important series of studies by the neurologist Herman Buschke and his colleagues shows that levels of forgetting in a word memory test can distinguish between healthy older individuals and those with Alzheimer’s disease. (Schacter, p. 42)

People recall and forget different details of shared events. 

Some people have better memories than others. 

It's not surprising to find disagreements

 when memories are shared during the holidays.

APA Reference

Schachter, D. L. (2021). The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Updated Edition. New York: Mariner. Link to Book

Key terms

#forgetting #memoryloss #memoryproblems #Alzheimer's

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton