Forgetting

Question 1

What causes forgetting information in the STM?

Answer 1

• limited capacity (info displaced)

- limited duration (info decayed)

Question 2

What causes forgetting information in the LTM?

Answer 2

• decay
• stored but hard to retrieve = accessibility problem
• information confused = interference problem

Question 3

2 types of inteference?

Answer 3

Retroactive

Proactive

Question 4

What is retroactive inteference?

Answer 4

New information interferes with old information

Question 5

Underwood and Postman study for retroactive inteference

Question 6

What is proactive inteference?

Answer 6

When old information interferes with new information

Question 7

Underwood study for proactive interference

Question 8

Interference theory strengths (2) and weaknesses (2)

Answer 8

+ supported by loads of lab experiments
+ evidence for real-world settings e.g struggle to remember french after learning german
- effects seem much greater in artificial lab settings so may not be as strong as suggested
- explanation for why we forget but doesn’t explain processes involved

Question 9

How may recall depend on cues?

Answer 9

When forgetting is treated as retrieval failure, we have more chance of retrieving the memory if the cue is appropriate.
Cues can be internal (e.g mood) or external (e.g context/situation)

Question 10

What is cue-dependent learning

Answer 10

When we remember more if we are in the same context/mood as we were when we coded the information originally

Question 11

Tulving and Psotka - Forgetting in LTM

Question 12

Cue-dependent learning strengths (1) and weaknesses (2)

Answer 12

+ strongest evidence. suggests all memory is available in LTM - we just need the right cue to access it.

• experiments very artificial (e.g word lists) so lack ecological vlue and hard to generalise into the real world + almost impossible to test if all memory is stored in LTM
• doesn’t explain all types of memory e.g cues might not be relevant to procedural memory (like riding a bike)

Question 13

What is eyewitness testimony?

Answer 13

the evidence provided by people who witnessed a particular event or crime. It relies on recall information

Question 14

What are leading questions?

Answer 14

a question where a certain answer is implied in the question

Question 15

Loftus and Palmer - A study into eyewitness testiony

Question 16

Loftus and Zanni - A study into leading questions