forgetting in long term memory: interference Flashcards
what are the 2 types of interference?
proactive
retroactive
what is proactive interference ?
when old memories interfere with the recall of new memories
what is retroactive interference?
when new memories interfere with the recall of old memories
what is interference?
when one memory disturbs the ability to recall another this is more likely to happen if memories are similar
what is underwood and postmans study?
ps were divided into 2 groups
group a : asked to learn a list of word pairs e.g cat-tree
then they learnt a second list of word pairs where the second word was different e.g cat-glass
group B : asked to recall the first list of word pairs only
both groups were asked to recall the first list of words
group B recall of the first list was more accurate than group As
what were the findings of underwood and postman?
group bs (only learnt one list )recall of the first list was better than group As recall ( learnt both lists)
this is because retroactive interference caused the group who learnt 2 different lists to forget the pairs of the first list.
words were mixed up as the new words interfered with the recall of old words
what caused the group who learnt both word lists to forget list 1 ?
retroactive interference caused the group who learnt 2 different lists of paired words to forget the pairs of the first list.
words were mixed up as the new word pairs interfered with the recall of old word pairs
what was baddeley and hitchs study?
they asked rugby players to recall the names of teams recently played
players who hadnt played in any other matches had
better recall than players who had played many matches in between playing the teams they were trying to recall
What type of interference does baddeley and hitchs study support ?
retroactive interference
what is a limitation of underwood and postmans study?
lacks ecological validity
it uses word pairs to test memory but in real life we wouldnt be asked to recall list of word pairs. so the study may not be generalised for the things we have to remember in everyday life?
what is a strength of underwood and postman?
lab experiment so high control over and can be replicated. the same word pair lists can be used in each replication of the study
what is a strength of baddeley and hitch?
it can be applied to everyday situations as the study used a real life scenario to test interference
what are the negatives of interference theory?
it only explains forgetting when 2 sets of info are similar. so interference may not be able to explain forgetting in everyday life
tends to use lab experiments so lacks mudane realism as they dont relate to real life settings
