Forgetting Flashcards
What are the 2 explanations for forgetting?
Interference
Retrieval failure
What is interference theory?
The idea that we forget because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten
What are the two types of interference and when do they occur?
Proactive interference — occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer one
Retroactive interference — occurs when a newer memory interferes with an older one
What is an example of retroactive interference?
Getting a new phone number and forgetting the old one
What is an example of proactive interference?
Getting a new phone number but mixing it up with the old one
What was McGeoch + McDonald’s study?
What were the findings?
*6 groups of participants
*each group learned the same list of 2 syllable adjectives until they were 100% accurate
*5 of the groups then had a second list to learn (all different)
They found that when participants recalled the original set of words, their performance was influenced by how similar the words were in the second list
What do the findings of McGeoch and McDonald’s study show?
That similarity plays a large role in our ability to forget and that interference is the strongest when the memories are similar
What is retrieval failure?
Forgetting as we don’t have the necessary cues to access a particular memory
What is a cue?
A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory
Who came up with the encoding specificity principle?
What is it?
Tulving
If a cue is to help us recall information, it needs to be present at encoding (when we learn material) and at retrieval (when we recall material)
What does context dependent mean?
Recall depends on external cue
What does state dependent mean?
Recall depends on internal cue
Who studied context dependancy?
What where the 4 conditions to learn and recall the words in?
Baddeley + Godden
Land/land
Land/underwater
Underwater/land
Underwater/underwater
Who studied state dependancy?
What where the 4 conditions to learn and recall the words in?
Carter + cassaday
Drugs/drugs
No drugs/drugs
Drugs/no drugs
No drugs/no drugs
