forgetting

n. the failure to remember material previously learned. Numerous processes and theories have been proposed throughout the long history of study to account for forgetting, including decay theory and interference theory. Forgetting typically is a normal phenomenon but it may also be pathological, as, for example, in amnesia.

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Psychology term of the day

February 23rd 2025

vacuum activity

in classical ethology, the occurrence of a fixed action pattern in the absence of the usual external stimulus (the releaser, or sign stimulus) that triggers the pattern. This is believed to be caused by a build-up of action-specific or motivational energy that overrides the innate releasing mechanism. Also called vacuum response. [proposed by Konrad Lorenz]