Explanation for forgetting: Interference Flashcards
What is interference?
Some forgetting takes place because of interference.
This occurs when 2 pieces of information disrupt each other, resulting in forgetting of one or both or in some distortion of memory.
Interference has been proposed mainly as an explanation for forgetting in long term memory.
Once information has reached LTM it is more or less permanent.
Therefore any forgetting of LTM’s is most likely because we cant get access to them even though they are available.
Interference between memories makes it harder for us to locate then and this is explained as forgetting.
What are the 2 types of interference?
Proactive interference- PI occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer one. For example, your teacher has learned so many names in the past that she has difficulty remembering the names of her current class.
Retroactive- RI happens when a newer memory interferes with an older one. For example your teacher has learnt some many names that she has difficulty remembering the names of the students last year.
What is the research on effects of similarity?
In both PI and RI the interference is worse when the memories are similar as discovered by McGeoch and McDonald.
Procedure= McGeoch and McDonold studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between 2 sets of material.
Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learned a new list. There were 6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of new lists:
Group 1= synonyms
Group 2= antonyms
Group 3= words unrelated to the original ones
Group 4= consonant syllables
Group 5= 3 digit numbers
Group 6= no new list- these participants just rested (control condition
Findings and conclusions= when the participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the mot similar material produced the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.
What are the explanations of the effect of similarity?
The reason similarity affects recall may be for one or two reasons. It could be due to PI previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store. Or It could be due to RI new information overwrites previous similar memories because of the similarity.
Why is real world interference a strength?
One strength is that there is evidence of interference effects in more everyday situations.
Bladdeley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall names of the team they had played against during a rugby season. The players all played for the same time interval but the number of intervening games varied because some players missed matches due to injury. Players who played the most games had the poorest recall.
This study shows that interference can operate in at least some real world situations increasing the validity of the theory.
What is a counterpoint for that?
Interference may cause some forgetting in everyday situations but it is usual. This is because the conditions necessary for interference to occur are relatively rare.
This is very unlike lab studies where the high degree of control means a researcher can create ideal conditions for interference.
For instance 2 memories have to be fairly similar in order to interfere with each other. This may happen occasionally in everyday life but not often.
This suggests that most forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to a lack of cues.
Why is interference and cues a limitation?
One limitation is that interference is temporary and can be overcome by using cues.
Tulving gave participants lists of words organised into categories, one list at a time.
Recall averaged about 70% for the first list, but became progressively worse as participants learned additional list.
t the end of the procedure the participants were given a cued recall test- they were told the names of the categorises. Recall rose again to about 70%.
This shows that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility to material that is still in LTM, a finding not predicted by interference theory.
Why is support from drug studies a strength?
One strength comes from the evidence of retrograde facilitation.
Participants were given a list of words and later asked them to recall the list assuming the interventing experiences would act as interference.
They found that when a list of words was learned under the influence of the drug diazepam, recall one week later was poor . But when a list was learned before the drug was taken, later recall was better than placebo.
So the drug actually improved recall of material learned beforehand,
Researcher suggests the drug prevents new information reaching parts of the brain involved in processing memories, so it cannot interfere retroactively with information already stored.
The findings shows that forgetting can be due to interference- reduce the interference and you reduce the forgetting.
