Forgetting

Question 1

What is forgetting?

Answer 1

• A failure to retrieve memories

Question 2

Retrieval failure

Answer 2

• Explanation for forgetting when material is stored in the LTM but cannot be consciously recalled.

Question 3

Interference

Answer 3

• Explanation for forgetting when similar material is confused in recall from the LTM.

Question 4

Interference Theory (IT)

Answer 4

Forgetting something due to information in LTM becoming confused or disrupted by other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall.

Question 5

Proactive and Retroactive Interference

Answer 5

P: proactive interference
O: older memories interfere with new ones
R: retroactive interference
N: new memories interfere with old ones.

Question 6

Henk Schmidt et al. (2000)

Answer 6

Henk Schmidt et al. (2000) remembering street names of one’s childhood neighbourhood
Finding: there was a positive association between the number of times participants moved house outside the neighbourhood and street names forgotten. The more new things, the fewer old things remembered. (Retroactive memory)

Question 7

Baddeley & Hitch (1977

Answer 7

Baddeley & Hitch (1977) asked rugby players to remember as many of the teams they played against. Forgetfulness was due more to number of games played rather than time passed. (Retroactive memory)

Question 8

Research: McGeoch and McDonald (1931)

Answer 8

Participants learned a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learned a new list.
Recall of first list depended on the nature of the second list. The more similar the list, the worse the recall. This shows that memories that are similar run together. This highlights the effects of similarity on interference.

Question 9

Interference and Cues

Answer 9

An issue with the interference theory is that cues can lessen the effect of interference. Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants a list of words, and then another list, and the effects of retroactive memory were seen, but after, they gave the participants a cue, in this case the category of words, and recall improved.

Question 10

Drugs

Answer 10

Taking a drug that alters your state makes interference less likely to occur.

Question 11

Evaluation: Evidence from Lab Studies

Answer 11

Most of the tests are lab based. This allowed there to be greater internal validity (knowing that the IV caused the change in the DV)

Question 12

Evaluation: Artificial Materials

Answer 12

But this means they lack ecological validity. Greater likelihood interference will be demonstrated in a lab than real-life situations due to learning lists (instead of faces, birthdays, etc.)