EXPLANATIONS FOR FORGETTING: INTERFERENCE

Question 1

The interference theory (IT)

Answer 1

• suggests forgetting occurs due to two pieces of information conflicting with each other.
• This can result in forgetting for either one or both pieces of information.
• If not totally forgotten, the information may become distorted.

Question 2

forgetting/interference

Answer 2

• Forgetting = when we can’t recall memories because they are not there.
• Interference = when one memory disturbs the ability to recall another and is increased when memories or information learnt is similar.

Question 3

proactive

Answer 3

• Proactive interference is when your old information affects your new information.

Question 4

retroactive

Answer 4

• retroactive interference is when new memory affects your old information.

Question 5

Mcgeoch and mcdonald

Answer 5

• changing the amount of similarity between lists.
• participants were asked to learn a list of ten words (list a) until they could remember them with 100% accuracy, then learn a new list out of 6 (list b).
• group 1: synonyms,
• group 2: antonyms,
• group 3: unrelated words,
• group 4: consonant syllables
• group 5: numbers
• group 6: no new list.

Question 6

mcgeoh and mcdonald findings

Answer 6

• recall displayed on the nature of the second list.
• the most similar material (synonyms) produced the worse recall.
• interference is strong when memories are similar

Question 7

one strength is that theres real life applications

Answer 7

• baddley and hitch asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they have played against during a rugby season.
• players didnt play the same numbers of games. those who played most (more interference had poorest recall)
• this shows that inference operates in some everday situationsm increasing validity of the theory.

Question 8

one limitation kane and eagle individual differences

Answer 8

• found that people with a greater working memory span were less susceptible to proactive interference.
• they found that those with a low working memory span showed greater proactive interference when recalling a second and third list (out of 3) than those with higher spans.
• must be something more that causes forgetting, for example retrieval failure.

Question 9

one limitation interterence effects may be overcome by cues.

Answer 9

• tuvling and pstoka gave pp a list of words to of words organised into categorises
• Recall of first list was 70% but fell with each new list (interference) when given cued recall test (names of the categorises) recall rose to 70%
• this shows that interference causes just a temporary loss of access to material still in LTM not predicted by theory.

Question 10

support from drug studies

Answer 10

• material learned just before diazepam recalled better than a placebo group one week later - this is retrograde faciliation
• the drug stopped new info reaching brain areas that process memories, so it could not retroactively interfere with stored info
• shows forgetting is due to interference, reducing interference reduces the forgetting.