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Related Concept Videos

Forgetting01:21

Forgetting

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Forgetting is an intrinsic aspect of human memory, characterized by the gradual loss or inaccessibility of information over time. Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneering psychologist, extensively studied this phenomenon and formulated the forgetting curve. This curve illustrates that memory loss occurs rapidly immediately after learning and then decelerates over time. Several mechanisms contribute to forgetting, including encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure, and interference.
Encoding...
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Interference and Decay01:16

Interference and Decay

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Forgetting is a complex cognitive phenomenon influenced by several factors, among which interference and decay are particularly prominent. These processes explain why individuals often struggle to retrieve specific information from memory, leading to lapses in recall that can be observed in everyday situations.
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Implicit Memories01:24

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Implicit memories, also known as non-declarative memories, are long-term memories that function outside of conscious awareness. These memories influence behavior and skills without explicit knowledge. This type of memory is evident in tasks like playing tennis, snowboarding, and texting. Implicit memory has three subsystems: procedural memory, conditioning, and priming. This type of memory is essential in various activities, from everyday tasks to specialized skills.
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The cerebellum, while traditionally associated with motor control, also plays a crucial role in memory, particularly in procedural memory, which involves learning motor tasks that become automatic through repetition. For example, studies have shown that when the cerebellum is damaged, individuals or animals lose the ability to learn conditioned motor responses, such as the conditioned eye-blink response in classical conditioning experiments with rabbits. This study demonstrates the...
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Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory01:26

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Memory is one of the most vital higher mental functions of the brain. Memory is closely related to learning because it enables us to retain information and experiences from our past to use them in our present life. It also helps us to remember facts, events, and skills, such as riding a bike or swimming. There are two types of memory — declarative memory, which involves memorizing facts or events, and procedural memory, which enables us to remember how to do something like writing or...
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False Memories01:18

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False memories represent a cognitive distortion in which individuals recall events that did not happen, or remember them in an altered form. This phenomenon highlights the brain's constructive nature in processing and recalling memories, emphasizing that memory is not a perfect representation of past events but rather a dynamic reconstruction influenced by various factors.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 20, 2026

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott DRM Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory
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Cognitive psychology. Forgetting the presidents.

H L Roediger1, K A DeSoto2

  • 1Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. roediger@wustl.edu.

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|November 29, 2014
PubMed
Summary

U.S. presidents are forgotten in collective memory at a predictable linear rate. This study empirically demonstrates how historical figures fade from public recall over time.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Historical Memory Studies

Background:

  • Collective memory influences societal understanding of historical figures.
  • Previous research has explored forgetting curves for individual memory, but less is known about collective forgetting of historical figures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To empirically investigate the process of forgetting U.S. presidents from collective memory.
  • To model the rate at which historical figures recede in public recall.
  • To predict when recent presidents will be recalled at levels similar to less prominent historical figures.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies involving undergraduate students (N=415) in 1974, 1991, and 2009, and adults (N=497) in 2014.
  • Participants recalled U.S. presidents and their ordinal positions.

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  • Forgetting functions were fitted to the recall data to model memory decay.

    • Main Results:

    • A consistent, roughly linear forgetting pattern was observed for presidents preceding the current one.
    • Recall without regard to ordinal position also exhibited regular forgetting patterns.
    • Forgetting functions predict that recent presidents will be forgotten to the level of past presidents by specific future dates.

    Conclusions:

    • Forgetting from collective memory is a quantifiable phenomenon that can be studied empirically.
    • The findings provide a model for understanding the decay of historical knowledge in the public consciousness.
    • This research contributes to the understanding of how societal memory of public figures evolves over time.