explanations for forgetting

Question 1

What is meant by interference?

Answer 1

One memory disturbs the ability to recall another. This might result in forgetting or distorting one or the other or both. More likely to happen when the memories are similar

Question 2

What are the two types of interference?

Answer 2

Proactive and Retroactive

Question 3

What is proactive interference?

Answer 3

Previously learnt information interferes with the new info you are trying to store.

e.g trying to learn names of new psychology class but instead using names of last years students

Question 4

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 4

A new memory interferes with older ones. For example you have difficulties remembering the names of your psychology students last year because you have learnt the new ones

Question 5

Who researched into interference?

Answer 5

Underwood and Postman (1960)

Question 6

What was Underwood and Postman’s aim?

Answer 6

To find out if new learning interferes with previous learning

Question 7

What was Underwood and Postman’s procedure?

Answer 7

Participants were divided into two groups
Group A were asked to learn a list of word pairs i.e cat-tree then asked to learn a pair of words where only the second was changed e.g cat-glass
Group B were asked to learn the first list of word pairs only
Both groups were then asked to recall the first list of word pairs

Question 8

What were Underwood and Postman’s results?

Answer 8

Group B’s recall of the first list of words was more accurate than group A

Question 9

What was Underwood and Postman’s conclusion?

Answer 9

Suggests items in the second list interfered with participants ability to recall the list. This is an example of retroactive interference

Question 10

Strengths of interference

Answer 10

Research to support from Underwood and Postman

Baddeley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall opponents they had played, players who had played more had worse recall (interference) - real life application

Question 11

Limitations of Interference

Answer 11

Research is artificial and mainly completed in lab experiments

Interference does not answer the question of if access or availability is the issue

Effects of interference may be overcome by giving people cues to help them remember

The loss of information may only be temporary so this might not be a true explanation of forgetting

Question 12

What are the two types of cues?

Answer 12

Meaningfully linked to the info to be remembered
Not meaningfully linked to the info to be remembered

Question 13

What is meant by context dependent forgetting?

Answer 13

When we learn the information, we also encode the context (external cues) in which we learn the information. Context dependent forgetting can occur when the environment during recall is different from the environment you were in when learning

Question 14

What is meant by state dependent forgetting?

Answer 14

We also learn the mental state we are in (internal cues). State dependent forgetting occurs when your mood or physiological state during recall is different from your state when we were learning. Should these cues not be present this can cause retrieval failure

Question 15

Describe Tulving’s ‘Encoding Specificity Principle’

Answer 15

The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory

Question 16

Who researched into context - dependent forgetting?

Answer 16

Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Question 17

What was Godden and Baddeley’s aim?

Answer 17

To investigate the effect of environment on recall

Question 18

What was Godden and Baddeley’s procedure?

Answer 18

18 divers from a club in Scotland 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 underwater
learn underwater - recall on beach learn underwater- recall underwater

Question 19

What were Godden and Baddeley’s results?

Answer 19

Following numbers of items were recalled
13.5 learnt and recalled on beach
8.6 learnt on beach and recalled underwater
8.5 learnt underwater recalled on beach
11.4 learnt and recalled underwater

Question 20

What was Godden and Baddeley’s conclusion?

Answer 20

Results showed context acted as a cue to recall as the participants recalled more words when they learnt and recalled the words in the same environment than in different environments

Question 21

Strengths of cue dependent forgetting

Answer 21

Research to support from Godden and Baddeley - Divers

Real world application - Abernathy suggests we should revise in room we will take exams

May be links with interference as the cues may stop interference from happening

Question 23

Limitations of cue dependent forgetting

Answer 23

Context is not normally strong enough in real life

May be differences in performance dependent on the task

No way to clearly establish cue and item were encoded together