Question

Situation: During lunch, Jimmy forgot to tell the waiter he was a vegetarian. Jimmy has not eaten meat in 5 years, and there was chicken broth in his soup. Jimmy got sick and had to go to the hospital.
Theory	Why was it forgotten? (According to this theory)	How to avoid being forgotten? (According to this theory)
Levels of processing
Decay
Interference
Cue dependent forgetting

Answer 1

1. levels of processing

• (why) Memories consolidate gradually over time. Jimmy failed to recall maybe due to lack of consolidation; this means that his brain was not able to properly store the information in his long-term memory or he faced some injury or damage to the hippocampus.
• if the cause of forgetting is biological, then Jimmy cant do much to avoid it.

2. decay theory

• (why) jimmy forgot because maybe he didn't face any situation where he had to specifically inform the waiter about being a vegetarian ( for example, he only ate at vegetarian restaurants) for a long while and thus the information faded over time.
• he can avoid forgetting by keeping the information stored in use, for instance, after this event he won't forget to inform the waiter next time he visits such a place.

3. interference theory

• (why) jimmy forgot to tell the waiter because he was faced with some new information in his current situation ( perhaps he was busy talking to someone) that interfered with recalling to inform the waiter about him being a vegetarian (retroactive interference).
• he could avoid such a situation by being cautious and paying more attention next time.

4. Cue-dependent forgetting

• (why) jimmy forgot because of retrieval failure. his situation lacked the necessary retrieval cues or context to remember to inform the waiter. this could be due to him being in a bad mood or drunk state, etc (internal factors) or because of environmental (external) factors.
• this can be avoided if appropriate cues or hints are present, that were there at the time of the original learning to help retrieve information.