What causes us to Forget?
A big part of memory is also why we forget. Two parts of how to get to the information stored in our brains is through accessibility and availability. The difference between the two are as follows: accessibility is trying to get to the information and availability is finding out if the information was even stored in our brains. According to Benyan et al (2005), the availability of information is part of Working Memory and accessibility is a part of Longterm Memory (LM). A function that causes forgetting in working memory is decay. Decay is caused by memory that has not been retreived in time before more information has been taken in by the brain. Since the working memory only has 30 seconds of lifespan in storing information, if something is not chunked or referred to within that timeframe, it is lost, or decayed. Forgetting from long-term memory is caused by factors of the interference theory (Benyan et al, 2005). The interference theory consists of Retroactive Interference (RI) and P
