Explanations for forgetting

Question 1

What are the types of interference?

Answer 1

Proactive & Retroactive

Question 2

What is proactive interference?

Answer 2

Old memories disrupt newer ones

Question 3

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 3

Newer memories disrupt old ones

Question 4

what research is done on effects of similarity?

Answer 4

McGeoch & McDonald
- 6 groups learned lists of 10 words until they could remember with 100% accuracy
- similar words (synonyms) produced worst recall so created more interference

Suggests interference is worst when memories are similar

Question 5

EVAL: Interference (Strength)

Answer 5

Real-world Application
- Baddeley & Hitch askes rugby players to recall names of past teams they played
- Players who played most games (most interference for memory) had poorest recall
- Increases external validity as interference can operate in some real-world situations

Question 6

EVAL: Interference (limitation)

Answer 6

Interference and cues
- interference is temporary and can be overcome by using cues
-Tulving and Psotka

Question 7

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 7

Occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.

Question 8

What’s a cue?

Answer 8

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access memory

Question 9

Research on context-dependant forgetting?

Answer 9

• Godden & Baddeley
• deep sea divers
• divers learnt list of words either underwater or on land and were asked to recall list of words either underwater or on land
• recall was better when external contexts matched