Explanations Of Forgetting Flashcards
what are the two explanations of forgetting
- interference
- retrieval failure
interference occurs when……
two pieces of information conflict with eachother
interference
what is proactive interference
when older memories interfere with a newer memory
interference
what is retroactive interfernce
when a newer memory interferes with an older memory
interference
explain the study where retroactive interference is studied
baddeley and hitch
- rugby players asked to recall the names of teams they played in the season
- most players had missed some games so for one player the last game might have been last week and for the other it was two months ago
- founf that recall for the last game was equally good
- this shows incorrect recall was not due to the passage of time but was related to the number of intervening games
retrieval failure
rerieval failure is defined as
where information has succesfully been stored in our LTM but there are not sufficient cues to access it
retrieval failure
cues can be either…..
- external (context)
- internal (state)
retrieval failure
give an example of an internal cue
mood
retrieval failure
give an example of an external cue
smell
retrieval failure
who developed the encoding specificity principle
tulving
retrieval failure
explain what the ESP is
tulving
- if a cue is to help us recall information it has to be present at encoding and at retrieval
retrieval failure
explain what context dependant forgetting is
- context provides environmental cues that can rigger recall of information
- memory is enhanced if these cues are present but recall is more difficult if they are absent
- this can occur when the environment during recall is different from the environment of learning
retrieval failure
explain the study that provides evidence of context dependant forgetting
godden and baddeley
- particpant were deep sea divers who memorised a list of 40 words
- they learnt it on either:
1. the beach
2. under water - after hearing the words the particpants were tested for recall in either:
1. same environmental context
2. different context - it was found that those who leanred and recalled in the same context remembered 40% more words
- this supports retrieval failure and ESP as it demonstrates context acted as a cue
retrieval failure
explain state dependant forgetting
- own internal state can act as a cue
- the absence of certain variables that were present at the time of learning may cause forgetting
retrieval failure
explain the study that provides evidence for state dependant forgetting
carter and cassady
- gave participants antihistimine drug
- they then learnt on the drug or learnt on no drug
- they then had to recall on drug or recall on no drug
- performance when the states mismatched was worse
