Neptune, Pluto). Another mnemonic, the method of loci,uses association of words on
a list with visualization of places on a familiar path. For example, to remember ten items
on a grocery list (chicken, corn, bread, etc.), we associate each with a place in our house
(a chicken pecking at the front door, corn making a yellow mess smashed into the foyer,
etc.). At the grocery store, we mentally take a tour of our house and retrieve each of the
items. Another mnemonic to help us remember lists, the peg word mnemonic,requires
us to first memorize a scheme such as “One is a bun, two is a shoe,” and so on, then
mentally picture using the chicken in the bun, the corn in the shoe, etc. These images
help both to encode items into LTM and later to retrieve it back into our working
memory.
Successful retrieval often depends on the match between the way information is
encoded in our brains and the way it is retrieved. The context that we are in when we expe-
rience an event, the mood we are in, and our internal state all affect our memory of an
event. Our recall is often better when we try to recall information in the same physical set-
ting in which we encoded it, possibly because along with the information, the environment
is part of the memory trace; a process called context-dependent memory.Taking a test in
the same room where we learned information can result in greater recall and higher grades.
Mood congruenceaids retrieval. We recall experiences better that are consistent with our
mood at retrieval; we remember information of other happy times when we are happy, and
information of other sad times when we are unhappy. Finally, memory of an event can be
state-dependent;things we learn in one internal state are more easily recalled when in the
same state again. Although memory of anything learned when people are drunk is not
good, if someone was drunk when he or she hid a gift, he or she might recall where the gift
was hidden when he or she was drunk again.Forgetting
Forgetting may result from failure to encode information, decay of stored memories, or an
inability to access information from LTM. Encoding failure results from stimuli to which
we were exposed never entering LTM because we did not pay attention to them. For example,
most of us cannot remember what is on the front or back of different denominations of
money. We use money to pay for things, yet have never paid attention to the details of the
coins or paper bills. Decay of stored memories can be explained by a gradual fading of the
physical memory trace. We may not remember vocabulary words we learned in a class for
a different language several years ago because we have never used that information, and the
neural connections are no longer there. Relearningis a measure of retention of memory
that assesses the time saved compared to learning the first time when learning information
again. If relearning takes as much time as initial learning, our memory of the information
has decayed.Cues and Interference
Forgetting that results from inability to access information from LTM can result from
insufficient retrieval cues, interference, or motivated forgetting, according to Freud.
Sometimes we know that we know something but can’t pull it out of memory, this is called
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.Often, providing ourselves with retrieval cues we associ-
ate with the blocked information can enable us to recall it. Learning some items may pre-
vent retrieving others, especially when the items are similar. This is called interference.
Proactive interferenceoccurs when something we learned earlier disrupts recall of some-
thing we experience later. Trying to remember a new phone number may be disrupted by
the memory of an old phone number. Retroactive interferenceis the disruptive effect of132 ❯ STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High