Explanations For Forgetting: Interference Flashcards
What is meant by proactive interference?
When an old memory interferes with a new one - past learning interferes with a current attempt to learn something.
What is meant by retroactive interference?
When a new memory interferes with an old one - new memories disrupt the recall of old ones.
What are two limitations interference theory?
- Interference and cues.
Interference is temporary and can be overcome by using cues.
Tulving and Psotka gave pps word lists organised into two categories. For the first list, recall averaged at around 60 percent, this became progressively worse as pps learnt more word lists. At the end of the procedure, pps were given a cued recall where they were told the names of the categories of the word lists - recall rose to 70 percent. Shows that interference causes temporary loss of accessibility to the LTM, this is not predicted by the interference theory.
- Artificial stimuli.
In a study where pps learn word lists with no personal meaning to them, the findings are likely to have low mundane realism. This is because in real life, we learn lists of meaningful information such as revision topics and shopping lists.
What is one strength of interference theory?
- Baddeley and Hitch found that, in a group of rugby players who had to recall their last game and the number of games they’d played that season (which would be different for each player), the number
of games they’d played since was more important than the total time they’d been playing for. This can be explained in terms of interference, where the more games each player had played, the more likely the memories of these newer games would interfere or block the recall of older games i.e. retroactive interference.
