4.1.2 - explanations of forgetting Flashcards
Define forgetting
The failure to retrieve memories
What are the 2 explanations of forgetting
Interference theory
Retrieval failure
What is the assumption of the interference theory
- forgetting is due to information in the lim becoming confused with or disrupted by other similar info during
coding - this confusion or disruption leads to inaccurate recall.
What are the two types of interference forgetting
- proactive
- retroactive
When does proactive forgetting occur
Where previously learnt information interferes with more recent learning
When does retroactive forgetting occur
When recent leaning interferes with information that we have previously learned
Who carried out research for interference forgetting
- Schmidt et al (2000)
- Baddely and Hitch (1977)
What was the aim of Schmidt study
assess influence of retroactive inference upon memory of street names learned during childhood.
What was the procedure of Schmidt study
· ppts were randomly selected from a database of current and previous students at a Dutch school
- all were sent a questionnaire:
giving a map of the area with the 48 street names replaced with numbers. Ppts were asked to remember as many as possible
· relevant details were collected including how many times the participant had moved house, where they lived ect…
· retroactive inference was assembled by the number of times individuals had moved to other neighbourhoods
What were the findings and conclusion of Schmidt study
FINDINGS
· there is a positive association between the number of times ppts moved house and the number of street names forgotten.
CONCLUSION:
· learning new patterns of street names when moving house. makes recalling older patterns of street names harder.
· Retroactive forgetting does seem to be able to explain the pattern of forgetting in some real-life situations.
Schmidt A03: extraneous variables
- limitation
Internal validity is affected by the many extraneous variables: - could have cheated on the questionnaire
- older people have a worse memory
- how long people attended the school for
Schmidt A03: real life
- strength
Gives the theory explanatory power and is helpful to use when describing retroactive forgetting - it could also be adapted to test proactive forgetting also
- had high ecological validity so has high external validity also.
What was the procedure of Baddely and hitch
· Asked rugby players to remember as many teams as possible they had played.
· interferance was tested by assessing how recall was affected by the number of games that had been played by the rugby players
What were the findings of Baddely and hitch
· forgetting was due to the number of games
that had played rather than the amount of
time passed.
- concluded that more retrograde interference had been experienced by the players that played more games
Interference theory A03: only explains specific scenarios
limitation
- The theory only explains why forgetting occurs if the two pieces of information are similar
- cannot be applies to real life forgetting as there isn’t always a correlation between the information that is forgotten and other memories
- theory lacks ecological validity
Interference forgetting A03: lab experiment
Strength
- controlled experiments are performed creating high validity studies
- high reliability
- however demand characteristics may occur
Interference forgetting A03: explanatory power
- The real life studies ( Baddely and hitch / Schmidt ) increase the real life application of the study
- realistic stimuli and high ecological validity
Assumption of cue dependent forgetting ( retrieval failure )
· forgetting is based upon a falivre to retrieve the prompts to trigger recall
· information is still in the ltm but just cannot be
accessed
· Recall IS dependent on accessing info by remembering the retrieval cue under which the info is stored.
What is the encoding specificity principle ( cdf)
TULVING (1983)
· If a cue helps us in recall. It has to be present at encoding and at retrieval
· If the cres available at encoding and retrieval are different forgetting will occur.
What is context dependent forgetting
↳ external retrieval cues, forgetting occurs when the external environment is different at recall from when it is encoded.
What is state dependent failure
· state - dependent falivre is due to internal retrieval cues
· forgetting occurs when an individual’s internal environment is dissimilar at recall to when the info was coded.
Darley et al (1973)
· Participants hid money while high on marijuana then were asked to find it when they were no longer high
- hound that ppts were less able to recall where the money was when they were not high
· When they were high again, they were better able
to recall where they had hidden the money.
Retrieval failure A03: explanatory power
Strength
- lots of research evidence to support the theory, lab experiments( Hugh validity and reliability)
- increases the external validity of the theory
Retrieval failure A03: unfalsafiable
Limitation
- decreases the validity of the explanation because it cannot be explicitly proven as correct.
- research is based off of assumptions and inferences must be made, so a form of circular reasoning is created
- as it is not known that the info is defiantly encoded in the first place
