Psychology Theories of Forgetting

There are four major psychological theories of forgetting. The first theory is cue-dependent forgetting (retrieval failure), which is failure to recall a memory due to missing cues that were present at the time of the actual event. The second theory is organic causes such as a physiological change in the brain (dementia). The third theory is interference memory which is based on the idea that information from one memory may fuse with another which leads the brain to become overstimulated and unable to focus on the exact wanted memory. Finally, the fourth theory is decay theory, based on the physical decay of memory pathways in the brain over time.