Explanations for forgetting: Interference

Question 1

What is interference theory?

Answer 1

Interference theory is when two pieces of information disrupt eachother

• forgetting occurs in LTM because we can’t get access to memories even though they are available

Question 2

What is Proactive interference?

Answer 2

Proactive interference is when older memory disrupts a newer one

• For example a teacher learns many names in the past class and can’t remember the names of her current class

Question 3

What is Retroactive interference?

Answer 3

RI happens when a newer memory disrupts an older one.

• For example a teacher learns many new names this year and can’t remember the names of her previous students

Question 4

When is interference theory worse?

Answer 4

Interference is worse when the memories are similar

• This may be due to..

1. In PI previously stored information makes new information more difficult to store
2. In RI new information overwrites previous memories which are similar

Question 5

Outline the procedure in McGeoch and McDonald (1931) study on effects of similarity.

Answer 5

1. Participants were asked to learn a list of words to 100% accuracy
2. Then they were given a new list to learn. The new material varies in the degree to which it was similar to the old list:

Group 1: Synonyms
Group 2: Antonyms
Group 6: Control group

Question 6

Outline the findings in McGeoch (1931) study.

Answer 6

It found that performance depended on the nature of the second list. The most similar material (synonym) produced worst recall.

This shows that interference is the strongest when the memories are similar.

Question 7

What is one strength of interference theory?

Answer 7

One strength is some support for interference in real world situations

• Baddeley and Hitch (1977) asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against during a rugby season
• Players did not play the same number of games, those who played the most games had the worst recall
• This shows that interference operates in some everyday situations, increasing validity of the theory

Question 8

What is one limitation of interference theory?

Answer 8

One limitation is that interference effects may be overcome using cues

• Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants lists of words organised into categories
• Recall of the first list was 70% but fell with each new list (PI). When given a cued recall test, recall rose again to 70%
• This shows that interference causes just a temporary loss of access to material still in LTM - not predicted by the theory

Question 9

What is another strength of interference theory?

Answer 9

Another strentgh is research support from drug studies

• Material learned before takinf diazepam recalled better than a placebo group one week later- this is retrograde facilitation.
• The drug stopped new information reaching the brain areas that process memories, so it could not retroactively interfere with stored information.
• This shows that the forgetting is due to interference - reducing the interference reduced the forgetting.