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A problem that has plagued academia for a long time: the physical roots of forgetting and its laws
There is a problem that has plagued the psychology community for a long time, that is how forgetting is formed. Let's first look at the famous Binghaus forgetting curve⬇, which describes the tendency of human memory to "forget (decay)":
The (short-term) memory intensity of the day is the highest, and the (long-term) memory weakens suddenly after a sleep, but then the weakening trend becomes slow again.
Explanation based on the "macromolecular coding theory"
This trend is difficult to explain with the "macromolecular coding theory": is the macromolecular protein thinning? Isn't that the stronger the memory, the thicker it is? But won't the decoding difficulty increase as the material structure is thicker? And the change in such a complex coding structure will not change the content? This method is very "clumsy". Could it be a "marker" that records the strength of memory? So how and why does it change? A series of difficult questions to answer.
Explanation based on "Pharaoh's Fallacy"
The explanation based on "Pharaoh's Fallacy" is more natural: "Pharaoh's Fallacy" memory exists in the form of light scenes (as shown below ⬇), just like a frame by frame projected by a projector. The picture records a momentary visual, auditory, olfactory and other information (the non-visual information is stored in the invisible light band)
This frame of picture itself has intensity (just like we can adjust the brightness of the projector). Then this intensity is the memory intensity of this moment. This intensity "decays" over time and many other factors, and so does our memory. And the information content does not change due to the attenuation of intensity.
It can even explain: some moments, like when we see something scary, the scene excites us and gives the scene so much intensity that we still remember it even after a long time New, as shown in the image below:
summary
Therefore, from the perspective of forgetting and the law of forgetting, I personally think that the explanation of the "Pharaoh's Fallacy" is more natural and simple.
PS: a small inference
Although the attenuation of memory is due to the attenuation of scene intensity, it means that it is only attenuated, and may not completely "disappear". In other words: if we define "forgetting" as the complete loss of memory; and "can't remember" as the target memory information is not retrieved because the intensity of the scene is too weak or the "clues" trying to find it are not correct. Then maybe we don't really "forget" but just "can't remember".