Forgetting theories

Question 1

What is interference theory

Answer 1

where one memory disrupts the ability to recall another memory. This is most likely when the two memories are very similar, such as foreign languages.

Question 2

What are the two types of interference theory

Answer 2

proactive interference and retroactive interference

Question 3

What is proactive interference?

Answer 3

Old - New, what we already know interferes with what we are currently learning.

Question 4

What is retroactive inference?

Answer 4

New - Old, later learning interferes with earlier learning

Question 5

What is evidence is that causes forgetting

Answer 5

Baddeley & Hitch - rugby players were asked to recall the names of teams they had played earlier in the season. As some players had missed games through injury, B & H could assess the effect of the number of intervening games and the time since the game was played on recall.
Results showed players who has played the most games showed the most forgetting. Time elapsed alone had little influence on levels of forgetting.

Question 6

What is the evaluation of the interference causes forgetting study

Answer 6

Many laboratory studies use unrealistic tasks such as the word list above. But some researchers have used more realistic ways of studying the effect of interference. As a field experiment, this research has validity and )mundane realism) as it was set in real time and was a real situation.

Question 8

What is one limitation of interference theory that is an explaination for forgetting

Answer 8

that it can only explain forgetting when two sets of information are similar les. badminton & squash). As this does not happen very often, this theory can explain occasional events of forgetting but it cannot be the explanation for most real life forgetting. This suggests that most forgetting may be better explained by other theories such as retrieval failure where forgetting is due to lack of cues.

Question 9

What evaluation point argues that interference is temporary and does not cause permanent forgetting

Answer 9

Tulving & Psotka (1971) found that interference affects the accessibility rather than the availability of a memory. As such, where information cannot easily be recalled spontaneously, memories can be retrieved with appropriate hints or cues. This would suggest that the memories are just temporarily unavailable rather than permanently lost. Interference theory did not state that the theory only explains a temporary loss of memory.

Question 10

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 10

When the memory is stored but cannot be accessed, cues are requires and if they are not present at the time of recall, the memory cannot be found and appears to be forgotten

Question 11

Who created the encoding specificity principle?

Answer 11

Tulving

Question 12

What is the Encoding specificity principle?

Answer 12

That a cue is to help is retrieve information, it must be present at encoding (when learning) and at retrieval (when its recalled) if cue are absent at retrieval, there will be forgetting.

Question 13

Who conducted the study that investigates whether cues from the environment affect recall?

Answer 13

Compared recall of 48 words, comprising four words from each of 12 categories, all participants were told to ignore the top categories, but on recall only one set of participants were given the top categories.

Results showed 40% recall of the words without the cues and 60% with cues
This study provides evidence for retrieval failure

Question 14

What is context depending forgetting?

Answer 14

When the context acts as a cue (place or situation)

Question 15

What is state dependent forgetting?

Answer 15

Our mood acts as a cue (triggers memory)

Question 16

What evaluation point supports retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting?

Answer 16

This is a strength because supporting evidence can increase the validity of an explanation; especially if this evidence can be demonstrated in real life situations (Goddon & Baddeley) as well as lab based environments (Tulving & Pearlstone). Due to this amount of evidence, Eysenck (2010) argues that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting from LTM.

Question 17

What evaluation point shows the effects of retrieval failure due to different contexts at learning?

Answer 17

Baddeley (1997) argues that contextual effects in real life are not very strong. The different contexts of land and water in Goddon & Baddeley’s study are extreme differences. It is difficult to find such differences in real life; learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough. This is a limitation because contextual cues may not be able to explain much forgetting in real life.

Question 18

What is the counter arguement fir Baddeley suggesting that it is still worth paying attention to the content at learning?

Answer 18

This is the basic principle of the cognitive interview (a method to help eyewitnesses recall more information about a crime. Smith (1979) found that just imagining the room in which learning took place was as effective on recall as being in the same room. Therefore knowledge of retrieval failure has been useful in improving recall using contextual information even though the effects of contextual information are not considered to be very strong.