I have a theory
When we fail to pay enough attention to something, the memory never gets stored.
Encoding failure
Recognizing a face but not remembering the person's name
Recognition
The inability to form new memories after brain damage
Anterograde amnesia
Tanya changed her phone number last month, but she keeps giving people her old number by mistake.
Proactive Interference
If you can’t remember the name of your childhood teacher until you visit your old school
Context-dependent memory
This part of the brain is crucial for forming new memories.
Hippocampus
Omar learned some French vocabulary for a course two years ago but hasn’t practiced since. Now, when his cousin from Guadeloupe visits, he realizes he can hardly remember any of the words.
Decay Theory
Remembering information without any cues
Recall
“I was there; I saw it with my own eyes” represents the challenge of _____ in the legal system.
Eyewitness Testimony
When we forget painful or threatening memories to protect ourselves.
Motivated Forgetting
A student studies best when in the same emotional state as when they learned the material.
State-dependent memory
The loss of memories from before an injury
Retrograde amnesia
When old memories are replaced or disrupted by new ones
Retroactive Interference
When learning something a second time is faster than the first
Relearning
A neurological disorder that results in severe memory lost, confusion and distorted thinking
Alzheimer's disease