Research Paper on:
Functions of Memory

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
How memory works has long been a focus for research, but the majority of this inquiry has been on how information is acquired, i.e. on the "success" of memory --  "how information gets in, stays in, and is retrieved" (Holme, 1972, p. 183). However, this process can -- and frequently does -- go "wrong" and forgetting occurs. How, why and  even if a piece of information that has been stored in long-term memory can be completely forgotten has been the focus of psychological research for quite sometime (Holme, 1972). The  following examination of past and present literature will explore what is known and what is conjectured about how memories deteriorate. When examined logically, it is not surprising that "forgetting"  is a natural mental process. Anderson and Schooler (1991) point out that in "any system responsible for managing a vast data base there must be failures of retrieval. It is  just too expensive to maintain access to an unbounded number of items" (Anderson and Schooler, 1991, p. 396). There are three models that describe what may be happening when  a memory deteriorates and a person "forgets." The first approach takes the position that complete eradication of information from long-term memory is rare or even impossible. Rather than eradication of  the memory, this group holds that there is a breakdown in the retrieval process. In other words, this model holds that forgetting is a matter of "suppression or repression," in  which the individual has arranged things so that the retrieval mechanism by-passes the memory in question (Holme, 1972). According to the second theory of forgetting, a "memory trace" is  formed in the brain whenever new information is "learned" or the individual has an experience (Holme, 1972). The degree to which the information is learned correlates with the strength of