Editing Forgetting (section)

==Measurements==
Forgetting can be measured in different ways all of which are based on recall:

===Recall===
{{See also|Recall (memory)}}
For this type of measurement, a participant has to [[recall (memory)|identify material that was previously learned]]. The participant is asked to remember a list of material. Later on they are shown the same list of material with additional information and they are asked to identify the material that was on the original list. The more they recognize, the less information is forgotten.<ref name=learningandbehavior />

====Free recall and variants====
Free recall is a basic paradigm used to study human memory. In a free recall task, a subject is presented a list of to-be-remembered items, one at a time. For example, an experimenter might read a list of 20 words aloud, presenting a new word to the subject every 4 seconds. At the end of the presentation of the list, the subject is asked to recall the items (e.g., by writing down as many items from the list as possible). It is called a free recall task because the subject is free to recall the items in any order that he or she desires.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Bjork, Robert A. |author2=Woodward, Addison E. |title=Directed forgetting of individual words in free recall. |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology |volume=99 |pages=22–27 |date=1973 |doi=10.1037/h0034757}}</ref>

=====Prompted (cued) recall=====
Prompted recall is a slight variation of free recall that consists of presenting hints or prompts to increase the likelihood that the behavior will be produced. Usually these prompts are stimuli that were not there during the training period. Thus in order to measure the degree of forgetting, one can see how many prompts the subject misses or the number of prompts required to produce the behavior.<ref name=learningandbehavior>{{cite book|last=Chance|first=Paul|title=Learning and behavior|date=2014|publisher=Jon-David Hague|isbn=978-1-111-83277-3|pages=346–371|edition=Seventh}}</ref>

====Relearning method====
This method measures forgetting by the amount of training required to reach the previous level of performance. German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) used this method on himself. He memorized lists of nonsensical syllables until he could repeat the list two times without error. After a certain interval, he relearned the list and saw how long it would take him to do this task. If it took fewer times, then there had been less forgetting. His experiment was one of the first to study forgetting.<ref name=learningandbehavior />

====Recognition====
Participants are given a list of words and that they have to remember. Then they are shown the same list of material with additional information and they are asked to identify the material that was on the original list. The more they recognize, the less information is forgotten.<ref>http://www.chegg.com. (n.d.). Learn About Measures Of Forgetting | Chegg.com. [online] Available at: https://www.chegg.com/learn/psychology/introduction-to-psychology/measures-of-forgetting.</ref>