Explanations For Forgetting - Interference Flashcards
Interference- when two pieces of information are in conflict
Interference in the LTM - we can not access memories even though they are available - as the memory has been disrupted by another.
Proactive interference- Past memories interfere with recent
E.g. a teacher has learnt many names in the past and can’t remember the names of her new class - or keeps calling them by names from her old classes
Retroactive interference- recent memories interfere with past memories.
E.g. a teacher learns many new names from new classes and cannot remember the names of students she has taught for longer - or calls her current students by new names she has learnt.
Interference worse when memories are similar
May be because:
- in PI - past information makes new, similar information more difficult to store
- in RI - new information overwrites previous memories which are similar
McGeoch and McDonald (1931) - effects of similarity
Procedure-
Participants had to learn a list of words to 100% accuracy so that they could recall them perfectly.
They were then given a new list to learn from - 6 groups were given different lists of varying similarity to the originally learnt list - with one control group (no new list to learn)
Findings/conclusions -
Most similar material (synonym list) produced the worst recall.
With very different material to learn (e.g. numbers instead of letters) recall was improved in both quantity and accuracy.
This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.
✅evidence from lab studies demonstrates interference
Most studies show that both types of interference are likely causes of forgetting from LTM. Lab experiments control the effects of extraneous variables and have good internal validity- so we can have confidence in the validity of interference as an explanation.
❌research used artificial materials
Word lists are not accurate representations of everyday things we have to remember - such as people’s faces, their birthdays etc.
The use of artificial materials makes interference much more likely in the lab. It may not be a likely cause of everyday forgetting
✅real-life studies have supported interference
Baddeley and Hitch (1977)
Asked rugby players to recall names of the teams they had played in the season chronologically.
Accurate recall was not dependant on how long ago the match had occurred, but was dependant on the amount of games played since the match they were trying to remember.
Strength as it shows materialisation of interference in the real world
