explanations for forgetting - inference Flashcards
what is inference?
when two pieces of information conflict with each other which results in forgetting one or both through distortion of memory. (explains mainly long-term memory)
what is availability?
whether or not the memory is actually stored.
what is accessibility?
whether or not the memory can be retrieved.
what is retroactive inference?
new info interferes with old info.
what is proactive inference?
an older memory interfering with a new one.
evidence by McGeoch and Mcdonald (1931)
-studied radioactive interference
-participants had to learn a list of words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, then learned a new list
-found that interference occurs when the two tasks are similar
why does similarity affect recall?
because of proactive interference, previously stored information makes new similar information more difficult to store or could be due to retroactive interference.
evidence by Postman (1960)
-lab experiment
-participants split into 2 groups; 1 learned 2 lists of words, 2 learned 1 list
-recall of control group was more accurate than that of the experimental group
evidence by Burke and Skrull (1988)
-presented magazine ads
-participants had to recall details of the ad
-in some cases, they had difficulty in recalling earlier ads, and other cases they had difficulty recalling later ads (retroactive)
-the effect was greater when ads were similar (proactive)
Baddely and Hitch (1977)
investigated interference effects in an everyday setting of rugby players recalling the names of the teams they had played in all of the games in the season. The time interval from start to end of the season was the same for all players but the number of intervening games was different for each player because of missed games. However recall for the last game was equally good no matter how long it was.
advantage of using lab studies?
have consistently shown effects of interference, reliable, can infer causation. therefore interference is a valid explanation of forgetting.
interference may be overcome using cues? (study)
Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants five lists of 24 words, with each list organised into implicit catagories. Recall was around 70% for the first word list but results fell after more lists were given. However, when told the names of thee categories, recall rose to 70% again.
real world application?
Danaher et al (2008) found that both recall and recognition of an advertisers message were impaired when participants were exposed to two adverts for competing brands in the same week. Interference effect was minimised by running multiple adverts in one day rather than spread across the week. This suggests that insights from interference research can enhance the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
