Explanations Of Forgetting: Interference Flashcards
What does the interference theory of forgetting suggest
-The interference theory of forgetting suggests that forgetting occurs because memories compete with or disrupt one another.
-This happens particularly when memories are similar, leading to confusion or loss of information. The theory is divided into two types
When does interference particularly happen
-This happens particularly when memories are similar, leading to confusion or loss of information
What are the two types of interference
-Proactive interference
-Retroactive Interference
What is Proactive interference
-When old memories interfere with the recall of newer ones
Example of proactive interference
-For example, if you learned French first and then started learning Spanish, your French vocabulary might make it harder to remember Spanish words.
what is retroactive interference
-When new memories interfere with the recall of older ones
Example of retroactive interference
-For example, after learning a new phone number, you might struggle to remember your old one.
Describe McGeoch and McDonald’s study (1931) on the effects of similarity
-Explored how similar and dissimilar information affects memory retention. They focused on retroactive interference.
-In their experiment, participants were asked to learn a list of words and then were given a second list to memorize. The second list varied in its similarity to the first. The results showed that interference was stronger when the second list of words was similar to the first, suggesting that the more similar the new information is to the old, the more likely it is to cause forgetting.
-This study supported the idea that interference plays a significant role in forgetting, which is a key concept in the Interference Theory of forgetting, emphasizing that memory is not just a passive storage but can be actively disrupted by new or competing information.
Evaluation of the interference theory
-Support from real world situations
-Support from drug studies
-Interference effects may be overcome using cues
What Baddeley and Hitch study (1977) supports the interference theory
-Baddeley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against during an entire rugby season. Players did not play the same number of games due to injuries etc, however, those who played the most had the poorest recall because more interference had taken place.
-This increases the validity of the theory and supports it by showing that it operates in everyday situations
Counterpoint of Baddeley and Hitch (1977)
-Interference in everyday situations is unusual because the necessary conditions for it are relatively uncommon.
-Therefore, most everyday forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure due to lack of cues
Tulving and Psotka (1971) study (interference may be overcome using cues
-They gave participants lists of words organised into categories. Participants were unaware what the categories were. They found that recall of the first list was 70% but fell with each new list, demonstrating proactive inference. Furthermore, when given a cued recall test with the names of categories, recall rose again to 70%
-This demonstrates that interference only causes a temporary loss of access to material still in LTM- which is not predicted by the theory
How does Coenen and Van’s drug study support the theory of interference
-Coenen and Van examined the effects of a benzodiazepine drug, diazepam, on memory recall.
-Participants were given a drug called diazepam, which is known to impair memory consolidation and were then asked to learn new information either before or after taking the drug. Their memory recall was later tested to assess the impact of the drug on forgetting.
-They found that when participants learned information before taking diazepam, their recall was significantly impaired.However, when they learned the material after taking the drug, recall was not as affected. This is called retrograde facilitation
What does Coenen and Van’s study demonstrate
-This shows that the forgetting is due to interference as reducing the the interference reduced the forgetting
