Explanations for forgetting-Interference Flashcards
What are the two types of interference?
Proactive interference and retroactive interference.
What is proactive interference?
When an older memory interferes with a newer one, causing forgetting of the new information.
What is retroactive interference?
When forgetting occurs because new memories disrupt the recall of older memories.
What did McGeoch and McDonald investigate?
The effects of similarity on interference of memories
What happened in McGeoch and McDonald’s experiment?
Participants had to learn a list of words that they could recall with 100% accuracy and then had to learn a new list of words. Therre were six groups and they learned synonyms, antonyms, unrelated words, consonant syllables, three digit numbers or there was no new list. The synonyms produced the worst recall but the numbers and people with no new words recalled the most. This shows that interference is stronger when memories are stronger.
What are the strengths of the interference theory?
There is evidence from lab studies such as in McGeoch and McDonalds experiment, which have controlled conditions and high internal validity.
There is real life application as demonstrated by Baddeley and Hitch who found that recall of rugby teams played was worse when they had played more teams than if they hadn’t played for weeks, supporting interference.
Interference may be overcome by using cues, allowing us to improve our memory by giving hints.
What are the weaknesses of the interference theory?
The artificial stimulus of leanring words decreases the external validity and generalisability to real life situations.
Time between learning is short because of the conditions but we are unlikely to need to recall things soon after in real life, meaning we the lab experiments have low mundane realism.
