ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a memory and forgetting have numerous and varied meanings in common, everyday speech. It examines the issue of memory because, from a common-sense point of view, learning is of little use unless at least some of what was learned is remembered at a later time. There are three types of memory: semantic memory; episodic memory, and time-place memory. The retention interval also called the delay interval is the time between the offset or termination of the sample stimulus and the onset or start of the comparison stimuli. Increasing the frequency and amount of reinforcement increases accuracy without affecting the forgetting rate. An apparatus widely used in studying both short-duration and long-duration memory in rodents is the radial maze. Because delayed matching to sample (DMTS) appears to epitomize the behaviors involved in memory, a great deal of research on this procedure has been conducted on a wide variety of species.
