The diverse nature of forgetting across a representational hierarchy

遗忘是生活的基本组成部分。在教育环境中，我们经常试图通过促进信息的长期保留来减少遗忘。遗忘通常被认为是一个单一的过程，然而研究表明，遗忘可以遵循不同的遗忘曲线，并且可以由不同的机制引起。至关重要的是，在学习过程中形成的心理表征的类型不同，遗忘可能在数量和质量上有所不同。在教育环境中，了解特定类型的信息何时以及如何被遗忘对于提高记忆力至关重要。例如，如果我们知道什么时候特定的信息可能会被遗忘，我们可以在适当的时间引入重复或排练，以最大限度地提高记忆力。我们最近提出了一个新的理论框架，可以预测表征层次中不同层次的遗忘速度和形式。关键的是，该框架做出了两个关键预测：(1)遗忘的变化在质量和数量上依赖于编码时形成的表征；(2)表征层次结构中的较高层次可以支持表征层次结构中较低层次的保留。我们将使用实验心理学和统计模型来测试这个框架的预测。然后，我们将使用这一理论见解来测试我们是否可以提高与教育相关的新学信息的记忆力。特别是，我们将测试在高阶叙事中学习时，教育相关信息的记忆是否会增强。学习叙述的潜在好处将进一步与已知的提高记忆检索练习和间隔学习的认知技术相结合进行测试。这项研究将为遗忘心理学提供基本的见解，并为设计新的工具来提高教育相关材料的记忆奠定理论基础。

Forgetting is fundamental part of life. In an educational setting we often try to minimise forgetting by promoting long-term retention of information. Forgetting is typically assumed to be a unitary process, however research suggests that forgetting can follow distinct forgetting curves and can be caused by different mechanisms. Critically, forgetting might differ quantitatively and qualitatively dependent on the type of mental representation formed during learning. Understanding when and how specific types of information are forgotten is critical to boosting retention in an educational setting. For example, if we know when specific information is likely to be forgotten we can introduce repetition or rehearsal at the appropriate time to maximally boost retention. We have recently proposed a novel theoretical framework that makes predictions about the rate and form of forgetting at distinct levels in a representational hierarchy. Critically, this framework makes two key predictions: (1) forgetting changes qualitatively and quantitatively dependent on the representation formed at encoding, and (2) higher levels in the representational hierarchy can support the retention of representations at lower levels in the hierarchy. We will test the predictions of this framework using experimental psychology and statistical modelling. We will then use this theoretical insight to test whether we can boost retention of newly learnt information that is educationally relevant. In particular, we will test whether retention of educationally relevant information is boosted when learnt within a higher-order narrative. The potential benefit of learning in narratives will further be tested in combination with known cognitive techniques that boost retention - retrieval practice and spaced learning. The proposed research will provide fundamental insight into the psychology of forgetting and lay the theoretical groundwork for designing novel tools for boosting retention of educationally relevant material.