Explanations for Forgetting

Question 1

2 types of forgetting

Answer 1

interference
retrieval failure

Question 2

2 types of interference

Answer 2

proactive and retroactive

Question 3

proactive interference

Answer 3

old memories prevents formation or recall of new memories smilar to it

Question 4

retroactive interference

Answer 4

new info disrupts recall of older memories associated with or similar to it

Question 5

McGeoch and McDonald studied…

Answer 5

…effect of similarity of learned material on retroactive interference

Question 6

McGeoch and McDonald

Answer 6

• P’s learned list of 10 adjectives to 100% accuracy of recall
• then learned another list of 10 words, ranging from synonyms of first to numbers
• tested on original list
• if 2nd ist synonyms, did worst
• if numbers, did best
• shows retroactive interference increases with similar memories

Question 7

Tulving and Psotka studied…

Answer 7

…whther interference is temporary and can be overcome by cues

Question 8

tulving and Psotka

Answer 8

• gave P’s lists of words organised into categories, 1 list at a time and asked to recall them
• recall avg of 70% for 1st list, getting worse with each list
• then given a recall test and told the categories.
• recall increased to 70% again

Question 9

Baddeley and Hitch investigated…

Answer 9

interference in everyday life

Question 10

Baddeley and Hitch

Answer 10

• had rugby players recall names of teams they’d played against that season
• found recall better for those who’d missed 1 or 2 games than those who’d not
• suggests interference reason ore regular players did worse as more info that can interfere with recall

Question 11

Tulving and Psotka showed…

Answer 11

limitation of interference as shows only temp loss of access to info in LTM

Question 12

evaluation of McGeoch and McDonald

Answer 12

• type of expt replicated many times
• used word list more relevant to everyday life than trigrams, but not as realistic as names/faces
• doesn’t sho how interference affects episodic memory or memories of faces

Question 13

potential CV’s of Baddeley and Hitch

Answer 13

• similarity of team names
• individual differences in memory of players

Question 14

retrieval failure

Answer 14

info can’t be recalled because don’t havee suffient cues to enable retrieval from LTM, despite info stored and therefore available

Question 15

explanations of forgetting evaluation

Answer 15

similar categories tackle context of sedation

Question 16

cues

Answer 16

triggers, often coded at the time of learning, which allow us to access info
can be internal or external

Question 17

e.g of internal cue

Answer 17

mood

Question 18

e.g. of external cue

Answer 18

physical location

Question 19

encoding specificity principle

Answer 19

suggest cues must be present at the time of learning (encoding) and at time of retrieval (recall) if they are to help us recall

Question 20

context dependent forgetting

Answer 20

recall depends on external cues
if environment of recall different to taht of encoding, we are unable to recall

Question 21

state dependnt forgetting

Answer 21

recall depends on internal cues

Question 22

summary of Godden and Baddeley

Answer 22

• had 1 group of divers learn words on land and another group learn them under water
• had 1/2 of each group recall words on land and other 1/2 underwater
• those who learned and were tested in same environment recalled 40% more words than those who’d done so in different environments

Question 23

explain the findings of Godden ad Baddeley

Answer 23

the external cues (environment) when learning the words were different to those present at recall, so led to retrieval failure

Question 24

summarise Carter and Cassaday

Answer 24

• 1 group learned words after taking a sedative and another group without the sedative
• 1/2 of each group tested, either with or without sedative
• those who were tested in different state to learned did significantly worse than those who were tested in the same state

Question 25

Carter and Cassaday conclusion

Answer 25

when interal cues present at learning but absent at recall, we are more likely to forget

Question 26

how does the cognitive interview support retrieval failure

Answer 26

the success of the cognitive interview , which recreates the context of learning to help witnesses recall as much as possible supports the importance of context dependent forgetting

Question 27

who suggested the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 27

Tulving