4.1.2 - explanations of forgetting

Question 1

Define forgetting

Answer 1

The failure to retrieve memories

Question 2

What are the 2 explanations of forgetting

Answer 2

Interference theory
Retrieval failure

Question 3

What is the assumption of the interference theory

Answer 3

• 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.

Question 4

What are the two types of interference forgetting

Answer 4

• proactive
• retroactive

Question 5

When does proactive forgetting occur

Answer 5

Where previously learnt information interferes with more recent learning

Question 6

When does retroactive forgetting occur

Answer 6

When recent leaning interferes with information that we have previously learned

Question 7

Who carried out research for interference forgetting

Answer 7

• Schmidt et al (2000)
• Baddely and Hitch (1977)

Question 8

What was the aim of Schmidt study

Answer 8

assess influence of retroactive inference upon memory of street names learned during childhood.

Question 9

What was the procedure of Schmidt study

Answer 9

· 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

Question 10

What were the findings and conclusion of Schmidt study

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Schmidt A03: extraneous variables

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

Schmidt A03: real life

Answer 12

• 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.

Question 13

What was the procedure of Baddely and hitch

Answer 13

· 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

Question 14

What were the findings of Baddely and hitch

Answer 14

· 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

Question 15

Interference theory A03: only explains specific scenarios

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Interference forgetting A03: lab experiment

Answer 16

Strength
- controlled experiments are performed creating high validity studies
- high reliability
- however demand characteristics may occur

Question 17

Interference forgetting A03: explanatory power

Answer 17

• The real life studies ( Baddely and hitch / Schmidt ) increase the real life application of the study
• realistic stimuli and high ecological validity

Question 18

Assumption of cue dependent forgetting ( retrieval failure )

Answer 18

· 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.

Question 19

What is the encoding specificity principle ( cdf)

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What is context dependent forgetting

Answer 20

↳ external retrieval cues, forgetting occurs when the external environment is different at recall from when it is encoded.

Question 21

What is state dependent failure

Answer 21

· 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.

Question 22

Darley et al (1973)

Answer 22

· 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.

Question 23

Retrieval failure A03: explanatory power

Answer 23

Strength
- lots of research evidence to support the theory, lab experiments( Hugh validity and reliability)
- increases the external validity of the theory

Question 24

Retrieval failure A03: unfalsafiable

Answer 24

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