Forgetting interference

Question 1

forgetting

Answer 1

refers to a person’s loss of ability to recall or recognise something that they have previously learned

Question 2

interference theory

Answer 2

• claims that forgetting occurs when two lots of info become confused in memory
• interference is more likely to occur when two lots of info are similar to each other
• less likely to occur when there is a gap in the instances of learning

Question 3

retroactive interference

Answer 3

when new learning affects the recall of old info

Question 4

proactive interference

Answer 4

when old learning affects the recall of new info

Question 5

ads of forgetting interference

Answer 5

• proactive interference
• retroactive interference
• revision

Question 6

disads of forgetting interference

Answer 6

• temporary
• retrieval failure

Question 7

proactive interference - ads of forgetting interference

Answer 7

• psych investigated proactive interference
• found that parts who learned 10 lists of words, could only recall 20% from the 1st list, the next day
• parts who learned 1 list of words recalled over 70%, the next day

Question 8

retroactive interference - ads of forgetting interference

Answer 8

• two psychs demonstrated retroactive interference
• they gave parts lists of words that they had to learn until they could recall them w/ 100% accuracy
• parts then learned a new list
• this new list was either synonyms or antonyms
• parts were then asked to remember the original list
  = parts given the synonyms list had the worst recall
  = learning two lists of words that have the same meaning would cause interference

Question 9

revision - ads of forgetting interference

Answer 9

• theory has practical applications
• students should be made aware of this theory so they don’t attempt to revise similar content/ subjects at the same time, as this will make interference more likely to occur

Question 10

temporary - disads of forgetting interference

Answer 10

• when interference occurs, the loss of info may only be temporary
  = interference is not true explanation for forgetting as the info isn’t over-written + still in LTM

Question 11

retrieval failure - disads of forgetting interference

Answer 11

• some psychs argue that retrieval failure is a much better explanation of forgetting in everyday life
• theory states that we forget when there are not enough retrieval cues to help us remember
• study conducted where psychs got divers to learn + recall world lists on either dry land or underwater
  = results showed that words learnt + recalled in the same context were better remembered
  = there were environmental retrieval cues to help them remember the words