Explanations Of Forgetting

Question 1

What does interference theory suggest?

Answer 1

That information in LTM conflicts with each other, resulting in a distortion or blocking of a memory

Question 2

What are the two types of interference?

Answer 2

Proactive and retroactive

Question 3

What is proactive interference?

Answer 3

When an older memory moves forward to interfere with a new one.

Question 4

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 4

When a newer memory moves backwards to interfere with an older one

Question 5

Which study shows the effect of similarity of information?

Answer 5

McGeoch and McDonald (1931)

Question 6

What was the procedure and then findings of McGeoch McDonald’s study?

Answer 6

When participants were given a list of words to learn followed by a second list, recall of the first list was worse when the second set of information was more similar.

Question 7

What does McGeoch and McDonald’s study show?

Answer 7

The interference becomes more likely the more similar the information is.

Question 8

What was the procedure Baddeley and Hitch’s (1977) study into interference?

Answer 8

They asked rugby players to recall the names of teams that they had played in a season

Question 9

What were the findings of Baddeley and Hitch’s (1977) study into interference?

Answer 9

If rugby players had played more games, the task was more difficult (rather than if there had been a long time since they had played the matches)

Question 10

Why does interference as an explanation for forgetting lack ecological validity?

Answer 10

The supporting evidence is obtained using artificial tasks such as learning meaningless words and having to recall them 20 minutes later. This is not reflective of memory in real life.

Question 11

What does retrieval failure suggest? (Also what the Encoding specificity principle is)

Answer 11

That forgetting occurs when ‘cues’ (triggers of information recollection) present at the time of encoding information, are not present at time of recall

Question 12

What is context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 12

When our external cues at the time of encoding do not match those present at recall

Question 13

Which study demonstrated context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 13

Godden and Baddeley (1975) - Deep-water divers

Question 14

What were the 4 conditions of Godden and Baddeley’s deep sea divers study?

Answer 14

Words learnt on land & words recalled on land
Words learnt on land & words recalled underwater
Words learnt underwater & words recalled underwater
Words learnt underwater & words recalled on land

Question 15

What did Godden and Baddeley find in their deep sea diver study?

Answer 15

Conditions in which the environment of learning matched that of the recall resulted in a significantly higher recall rate.

Question 16

What is state dependent forgetting?

Answer 16

When our internal cues at the time of encoding do not match those present it recall

Question 17

Which study demonstrates state-dependent forgetting?

Answer 17

Carter and Cassaday’s Anti-histamine study (1998)

Question 18

What were the findings of Carter and Cassaday’s study?

Answer 18

40% higher rates of accurate recall in the matching conditions compared to non-matching conditions

Question 19

Why does the evidence to support retrieval failure lack ecological validity?

Answer 19

Studies, like Godden and Baddeley’s context-dependent study, lack ecological validity, as having to recall words underwater would not happen in every day life