Final answer:
Forgetting unused information over a long time is most closely associated with the concept of decay in memory studies. This indicates that memory traces weaken over time when not activated or rehearsed, leading to forgetting. Option d is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
Forgetting because we have not used the information in a long time is most closely related to the concept of decay in the realm of memory and cognitive psychology. Decay theory proposes that if a memory trace is not activated or retrieved over time, it gradually fades or deteriorates, somewhat like how an unused muscle may atrophy from lack of use.
This phenomenon is different from amnesia, which is typically the loss of memories due to brain trauma or disease; cue-dependent forgetting, which occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to access memories; and interference, both proactive and retroactive, where other information hinders the recall of some memories.
Studies such as the seminal work by Peterson and Peterson (1959) on short-term memory demonstrated the rapid loss of information within seconds unless actively rehearsed. They used trigrams to test participants' memory and found that without rehearsal, memory of these trigrams vastly degraded after 18 seconds. Their findings support decay theory in short-term memory. Furthermore, research by Keppel and Underwood (1962) introduced the idea of interference, where learning new information can interfere with the retrieval of older information, demonstrating another mechanism of forgetting.
In contrast to short-term memory, long-term memory is believed to have a vast, if not unlimited, capacity for information. The initial storage in long-term memory demands consolidation, which can take a significant amount of time. Once in long-term memory, the forgetting of information is less abrupt than in short-term memory but could still decline gradually through the decay process if not revisited or utilized.
Therefore, the most accurate answer to the question is (d) decay. If we do not revisit and practice or think about certain pieces of information, those memory traces can weaken over time leading to forgetting, which nodes to the decay theory of memory.