Explanations for forgetting

Question 1

What are the two explanations of forgetting?

Answer 1

Interference theory
Retrieval Failure theory

Question 2

Describe what happens in the interference theory

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

When is interference much more likely to occur?

Answer 3

If the memories are similar

Question 4

What are the types of interference?

Answer 4

Proactive interference
Retroactive interference

Question 5

What is proactive interference?

Answer 5

When an older memory interferes with a new one

Question 6

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 6

When a newer memory interferes with an old one

Question 7

Give an example of proactive interference

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Give an example of retroactive interference

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

What does Mcgeogh and Mcdonald’s study report?

Answer 9

In both PI and RI, the interference is worse when the memories (or learning) are similar.

Question 10

Describe Mcgeogh and Mcdonald’s procedure

Answer 10

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)

Question 11

What did Mcgeogh and Mcdonald find?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

What is a cue?

Answer 13

A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory

Question 14

What are the 2 types of retrieval failure?

Answer 14

Context dependent forgetting
State dependent forgetting

Question 15

What is Context dependent forgetting?

Answer 15

memory retrieval is dependent on external/environment cues (e.g. weather or places)

Question 16

What is State dependent forgetting?

Answer 16

When memory retrieval is dependent on an internal cue which relates to your state of mind (e.g. emotions or being drunk)

Question 17

Who talks about the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 17

Tulving

Question 18

What is the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

What did Godden and Baddeley investigate?

Answer 19

investigated the effect of environment on recall. This study took place in Scotland.

Question 20

Describe Godden and Baddeley’s procedure

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What did Godden and Baddeley find?

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Describe Baddeley and Hitch’s study

Answer 22

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.