Explanations for forgetting Flashcards
Explanations for forgetting:
•proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence
of cues
what is interference
Interference is when two lots of information become confused in memory. This can be because the long term memory is being disrupted by one lot during the coding of the other lot. There are two kinds of interference; proactive and retroactive.
what is Proactive interference
Proactive interference is when previously learnt information affects the recall of new information.
what is Retroactive interference
Retroactive interference is when new information affects the recall of previously learnt information, as it may overwrite or block the earlier information.
Why does interference happen?
Interference is much more likely to occur when two pieces of information are similar due to response competition. Interference is time-sensitive, so much more likely to occur if both pieces of information are learnt at the same time (and less likely to occur if learned far apart).
Studies for interference
Schmidt (2000) investigated memories of childhood street names. The sample was 211 11-79 year olds who responded to a questionnaire containing a map of the area around their old school without street names (streets numbered instead). They were asked to name the streets from memory. Found the more times an individual moved home, the fewer street names they recalled (negative correlation). This demonstrates retroactive interference as remembering new streets makes recalling old street names harder.
Baddeley and Hitch (1977) demonstrated retroactive interference as they found that the more games rugby players had played, the worse their recall was of the names of team that they had played became. Memory of the newer team names had interfered with the memory of the older team names.
Evaluation for interference
•Issues of validity- evidence that interference can explain forgetting frequently comes from artificial laboratory experiments using artificial tasks, so interference may not occur to the same extent in more real life scenarios, challenging interference as an explanation of forgetting
•Knowledge of how forgetting works has practical applications such as effective revision strategies.
•Interference only explains forgetting if two sets of information are similar so cannot explain many day-to-day cases of forgetting
What is Retrieval failure
Retrieval failure is a problem with retrieving the memory. This may be because, whilst the memory is in our long term memory, we have forgotten the information (cues) that makes us think of the memory (cue-dependent forgetting).
what are the three kind of cues that you can have for a memory
context-dependent cues, state-dependent cues, and category/organisational-dependent cues.
Context dependent cues
The context is the situation around you as you initially code the information. If you are then asked to recall that information in a different environment, your memory will be inhibited as you don’t have the environmental cues that you had when you first coded the memory.
State dependent cues
The state is the mood, physical state or mental condition you were in when you learn the new information. Being in a different mood or physical/mental state (having a different internal environment) may inhibit recall of the information.
category/organisational-dependent cues.
Category/organisation- it is easier to find a memory if our memories are clearly organised. By knowing the category that the information fits into when you remember it (i.e: Paris is the capital city of France, rather than just that Paris is a capital city) you are more likely to be able to recall it in future. In this way more effective cues will have fewer things associated with it (Easier to find Paris among city names in france than amongst city names of the world), so greater organisation aids memory.
Research on context-dependent cues
Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied divers who had learnt new material either on dry land or while underwater. They were then tested on the new information on land or underwater. Recall was worst if tested in a different context to learned and recall was best when tested in the same context as learnt. This suggests that being in the same context as you learned the information in when you are being tested on it aids recall.
Therefore it might be good for instructors to teach safety instructions to divers once they are already underwater so that they are more likely to remember them in an emergency.
Research on state-dependent cues
Overton (1972) Participants learned material whilst either drunk or sober. Then were tested on the material when either drunk or sober. Overton found that recall was worse when participants had a different internal state when tested than they had had when they learnt the information (i.e; learnt it when drunk, tested on it when sober). Recall was best is they had the same internal state at recall as they had when learning. This shows that the state-dependent cues can aid recall of information.
Research on category-dependent cues
Tulving and Pealstone (1966) gave participants 48 words to learn, and found that the free recall group (no categories for words) performed worse than the group given the list split into four 12 word categories. The categories therefore acted as a cue. This suggests that organisation improves recall.
