Explanations for forgetting Flashcards
What are the two explanations of forgetting?
Interference theory
Retrieval Failure theory
Describe what happens in the interference theory
Two pieces of information may disrupt each other, resulting in forgetting of one or both, or in distortion of the memory.
This is largely in LTM.
The memories will still be available, but we can’t get access to them as they are more difficult to locate, due to interference, leading to forgetting.
When is interference much more likely to occur?
If the memories are similar
What are the types of interference?
Proactive interference
Retroactive interference
What is proactive interference?
When an older memory interferes with a new one
What is retroactive interference?
When a newer memory interferes with an old one
Give an example of proactive interference
when you try to remember a new mobile phone number and your memory for your old number disrupts your attempts to remember this new information.
Give an example of retroactive interference
You move to a new address. After a while, you start to forget your previous address, even if you lived there for a long time.
When you see your ex, you accidentally call them by your current partner’s name.
What does Mcgeogh and Mcdonald’s study report?
In both PI and RI, the interference is worse when the memories (or learning) are similar.
Describe Mcgeogh and Mcdonald’s procedure
Participants learnt a list of 10 words to 100% accuracy. Then they learnt a new list. There were 6 groups of participants, each with a new list:
1) synonyms (same meaning as original list)
2) antonyms (opposite meaning)
3) Words unrelated to original
4) Consonant syllables
5) 3-digit numbers
6) no new list, they just rested (control group)
What did Mcgeogh and Mcdonald find?
They found when participants then recalled the original list of words their performance depended on the nature of the second list . The more similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall.
What is retrieval failure?
This is a form of forgetting which occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.
If the cues are not available at the time of recall, then you will not be able to access the memories that are there. The memory is therefore there but not accessible due to retrieval failure.
What is a cue?
A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory
What are the 2 types of retrieval failure?
Context dependent forgetting
State dependent forgetting
What is Context dependent forgetting?
memory retrieval is dependent on external/environment cues (e.g. weather or places)
What is State dependent forgetting?
When memory retrieval is dependent on an internal cue which relates to your state of mind (e.g. emotions or being drunk)
Who talks about the encoding specificity principle?
Tulving
What is the encoding specificity principle?
Tulving says that if a cue is to help us to recall information it has to be present at encoding (when we learn the material) and at retrieval (when we are recalling it).
If the cues are available at encoding & retrieval are different (or absent at retrieval) there will be some forgetting
Some cues are encoded at the time of learning in a meaningful way e.g. the cue ‘STM’ will help you recall info about STM. Such cues used in mnemonic techniques.
Other cues are also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way - examples include content dependent & state dependent forgetting
This theory explains forgetting in the LTM as a retrieval failure: the information is stored in the LTM but cannot be accessed.
Forgetting according to this theory is due to lack of cues.
What did Godden and Baddeley investigate?
investigated the effect of environment on recall. This study took place in Scotland.
Describe Godden and Baddeley’s procedure
8 divers from a diving club were asked to learn lists of 36 unrelated words of two or three syllables. There were 4 conditions :
Learn on beach recall on beach
Learn on beach recall under water
Learn under water recall on beach
Learn under water recall under water
What did Godden and Baddeley find?
Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions. Therefore, the external cues at learning were different from the ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure.
Describe Baddeley and Hitch’s study
they asked rugby players to try and remember
the names of the teams they had played so far that season week by week. Because
most of the players had missed games , for some the ‘last game’ might have been
two weeks ago or more. The results showed that accurate recall did not depend on
how long ago the matches took place. More important was the number of games
they played in the meantime. So a players recall of a team three weeks ago was
better if they had played no matches since then.
