Even if it's been years since you have seen someone, you recognize them as familiar if you see them in public. This is an indication that forgetting is about a lack of retrieval cues. If you did hadn't ever met a person, you wouldn't have a feeling that you know them.

Forgetting is usually not a loss of information, but that the inability to accurately retrieve information.

FORGETTING

Lecture: Memory

Video: Clive Wearing