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Cognitive psychology of human memory (thesaurus)

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Concept information

phenomenon > memory phenomenon > permastore effect

Preferred term

permastore effect  

Definition

  • The term used by Bahrik (1984) for knowledge that resists forgetting over long periods of time.

Broader concept

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Bibliographic citation(s)

  • • Bahrick, H. P. (1984). Semantic memory content in permastore: Fifty years of memory for Spanish learned in school. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.113.1.1

    [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed]

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

Editorial note

  • Bahrik (1984) was interested in the memory of the Spanish language learned during the high school and university years. The results indicate that the forgetting curve can be decomposed into three parts: the first shows a rapid forgetting of knowledge within 6 years after learning; the second part of the curve indicates knowledge that resists forgetting for a period of 25 to more than 50 years (permastore effect that persists even if the subjects have not had the opportunity to practice the Spanish language); the third suggests a further decline in memory (this last phase could in fact be the result of the memory difficulties of the respondents who are now older). The permastore effect has been studied for academic knowledge (e.g. foreign language, mathematics) or for knowledge acquired incidentally and informally in everyday life (e.g. the names of the streets in the childhood neighborhood). The term was coined by analogy with the term permafrost, a term for the ground that is permanently frozen in certain regions of the globe.

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-WS2V394N-Q

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