explanations for forgetting: interference

Question 1

what is proactive interference?

Answer 1

-old memories interfere with new ones

Question 2

what is retroactive interference?

Answer 2

-new memories interfere with old ones

Question 3

explain the procedure of study on similarity?

Answer 3

• pp’s learnt list of 10 words by heart

- then learnt a new list (there were 6 groups all with a different type of list)

Question 4

what were the findings from the study on similarity?

Answer 4

• pp’s performance depended on nature of second list
• group 1 (synonomous words) did worst (1.2 mean)
• group 6 (no new list) did best (4.5 mean)
• most similar material=worse recall, shows interference is strongest when memories are similar

Question 5

evaluate a strength interference?

Answer 5

STRENGTH/WEAKNESS

• thousands of lab studies have shown both types of interference are common ways of forgetting
• this is a strength as lab studied are done in very controlled conditions, no extraneous variables
• but low external validity as lacks real life

Question 6

evaluate similarity research?

Answer 6

WEAKNESS

• uses artificial stimuli
• low external validity= don’t replicate real life
• people will find it harder to remember and might be different for more personal words

Question 7

explain and evaluate a research in real life for interference?

Answer 7

• Baddley
• rugby players asked to remember teams they’d played
• results showed accuracy didn’t depend on how long ago but how many they had played
• the more they had played the worse the recall
• shows interference happens in real life