Why We Made This:
Understanding memory models and forgetting theories is key in cognitive psychology, yet they can be confusing. Learners often struggle to differentiate models like Atkinson-Shiffrin, Baddeley & Hitch, and Broadbent’s Filter, and connect them to real-life scenarios such as multitasking or selective listening. We created visually organized charts to simplify these concepts, using clear visuals, memorable examples, and concise explanations to make complex cognitive models easy to understand and apply.
 
Learning Objectives:
Explain interference theory, including proactive and retroactive interference, and understand how old and new information compete in memory.
Differentiate proactive interference (old disrupts new) from retroactive interference (new disrupts old), and identify examples of each.
Understand the serial position effect, and how primacy and recency influence memory recall — with practical examples.
Describe the trace decay theory, and how memory traces weaken over time without rehearsal.
Explain Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve, including the rate of forgetting and how rehearsal impacts retention.
Understand retrieval failure theory, including context-dependent, state-dependent, and language-dependent memory retrieval, as well as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
Learn and apply rehearsal strategies, including maintenance and elaborative rehearsal, and know how they contribute to short-term and long-term memory.