Long Term Memory: How It Works
To be able to do well in my chemistry class, it is important that I remember how to perform metric equations very easily and quickly. I will need to learn how to convert to meters, grams, and liters from various different sizes such as centimeters, milligrams, and kiloliters by memorizing the movement of decimal places for each prefix. To be able to do this, I will need to store the information into my long term memory. By storing it in my long term memory, I will be able to recall and use the information whenever I want and use it throughout my chemistry class. Once I learn the conversions, I will keep remembering them as long as I keep using them during class. If I no longer need to perform metric conversions in my classes and I stop rehearsing the material, then it is likely that it will decay from my long term memory. It took me an hour to learn the material, and I will have to know this material for the
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There are two different interferences that could cause this. The first is proactive interference, which is when previously stored information interferes with new information you are trying to remember. In chemistry, you learn a lot more conversions beyond basic metric conversions, such as mole conversions. Mole conversions might be hard to learn because you already know metric conversions so well. The second interference is retroactive interference. Retroactive interference is when newly stored information interferes with the retrieval of old information. It is the opposite of proactive interference because instead of having a hard time learning new mole conversions. It is harder to retrieve the first basic metric conversion you already learned because the new conversions make it hard to remember the original