Explanations for forgetting Flashcards
What is meant by interference?
The type of forgetting caused by one memory disrupting another
What is meant by proactive and retroactive interference?
Proactive= old memories interfere with the ability to learn something new
Retroactive= new learning interferes with the recall of old learning
Give an example of proactive and retroactive
Proactive= struggling to learn a new language because you can only remember the old one
Retroactive= not being able to remember an old PIN number because you can only remember a new one
What two factors increase the likelihood of interference?
-Time between learning
-Effect of cues
Describe the procedure and findings of McGeough and MacDonald’s study
-Participants learn a list of words
-Either given a second list of numbers or words
-The more similar the second list was to the first, the worse the recall of the first list
-Similarity increases the effects of retroactive interference
-Supports theory as it shows the more similar the information, the greater the interference
-Has low external validity because of the use of artificial word lists and the gap between learning and retrieval was exaggerated
Describe Baddeley and Hitch’s study and their findings
-Asked rugby players to remember names of teams they had played so far
-Players had a better memory of the teams if they had played less games
-How long ago the matches were was less important
-Shows that interference rather than time had impact on forgetting
-Supports interference theory as the more games played, the more similar info there is and therefore interference occurs
-Has high external validity
Describe Burke and Skrull’s study and their findings
-Gave people magazine adverts to recall from memory
-More similar the products, the worse the recall
-Showed competitive interference occurred
-Supports the theory because the more similar the adverts, the greater the interference
-Has practical application
How does research into the effects of interference have useful real life applications?
Baddeley and Hitch (rugby) and Burke and Skrull (magazine) have real life application because the tasks were practical and naturalistic questions
Why might some research into forgetting exaggerate the effects of interference?
In McDonald and Mcgeoch (word list) the gap between learning and recall was very long and therefore exaggerated
How does the time between learning the 2 sets of material effect levels of interference?
It exaggerates the effects of interference
How does using cues effect levels of interference?
Tulving and Psotka showed that the effects of interference is reduced if cues are used to aid memory
What is retrieval failure?
Material to be recalled is available but not accessible due to a lack of cues
What is context dependent forgetting?
People are more likely to remember information if they learn and recall in the same place
What is state dependent forgetting?
People are more likely to remember information if their internal feelings are the same in learning and recall
What is encoding specificity principle?
A cue that helps us to recall information has to be present at encoding and at retrieval
Describe the procedure and findings of Godden and Baddeley’s study
-Studied recall in divers
-Learned and recalled word lists in 4 conditions
-Recall is best when learning and recall are in same context
-Supports retrieval failure theory as when in different contexts, it lacked context call for recall
-Low external validity as its not in a natural setting
-Effects of interference exaggerated because the two contexts are very extreme
Describe the procedure and findings of Goodwin et al
-Tested drunk and sober people on their recall of word association and picture recognition
-Best recall was learned when in the same emotional state as when recalled
-Supports state dependent forgetting as when in the same state, we’re more likely to recall the info in the state we learned it
How does research into the effects of retrieval failure have useful real life application?
Abernathy found that students do better in exams if they take them in a room where they did the learning
Why might research into factors affecting EWT have limited application to real life?
Retrieval cues do not always work because many things we learn are complicated and multi-faceted and single cues are rarely effective in helping us to remember them
Why is the encoding specificity Principe hard to test?
It is a circular explanation
