ABSTRACT
H. Ebbinghaus argued that the approximately logarithmic forgetting curve shows that memory decay is the gradual weakening of the memory trace. There is much support for a competing explanation of forgetting: interference theory. According to this approach, information is forgotten because new information interferes with its retrieval. In fact, forgetting is greater when learning is followed by rapid eye-movement sleep than by slow-wave sleep. The effect of new information on memory is called retroactive interference. The study of individuals with various types of memory loss, or amnesia, has told us a lot about memory, particularly about memory storage. Surgical removal of parts of the medial temporal lobes of the brain produces anterograde amnesia without retrograde amnesia, or loss of the ability to learn motor skills or form conditioned responses. Post-traumatic amnesia is memory loss following a blow to the head, usually severe enough to have caused concussion, or electroconvulsive therapy.
