Forgetting Flashcards
What is proactive interference
Occurs when old information affects the learning of new information
What is retroactive interference
Occurs when new information affects the recall of old information
What causes interference to occur more often
When information is similar
What is the Strengths of Research into interference
Supporting research: Baddeley and Hitch found that when rugby players were asked to recall the teams they had played against, those who played less recalled more due to retroactive interference
Supporting Research: Keppel and Underwood found that when presented with trigrams to recall and a task to prevent rehearsal, the first trigrams were recalled better, due to proactive interference
Weaknesses of research into interference
Although the research supports that interference is likely to occur when information is similar, it does not explain why forgetting occurs in situations where information is dissimilar
Most of the research conducted into interference was conducted in a laboratory therefore meaning it lacks ecological validity
Both Baddeley and Hitch and Keppel and Underwood demonstrate similar data types such as recall of Rugy Union teams and recall of trigrams are very similar types of interference effects and therefore lacks generalisability/ limited application
What is the encoding specificity principal
It claims memory is most effective when information present at the time of learning is available during recall
What is context dependent forgetting
When there are environmental changes between learning/coding and recall
What is state-dependent forgetting
When an individual’s emotional/physical state is different when trying to recall information
Strengths of retrieval failure
Research support: Godden and Baddeley found that when divers had to learn lists of words on land, recall was better on land compared to recall in water, supporting context cue failure
Research support: Goodwin et al found that when participants were asked to learn a list of words when they were drunk or sober, the recall was worse if the recall state was not the same
Darley et al. found that individuals who were under the influence of marijuana when they put money in a ‘safe place’ were less able to recall where this location was when they were sober, supporting the findings of Goodwin et al.
Weaknesses of research into retrieval failure
Godden and Baddeley did not control other variables. For example time of day and diving locations. This means the context cues were not well controlled. Additionally, the study used a repeated measures design, which means that order effects could have contributed to the recall/forgetting of the divers
