Interference

Question 1

Who studied Similarity in terms of Interference and what did they find?

Answer 1

• Learning similar lists of words produced the most interference and the most forgetting (McGeoch and McDonald)

Question 2

What does it mean if Interference is Retroactive?

Answer 2

• Newer memories disrupt old ones, e.g remembering to drive on left when u return from holiday to America

Question 3

What does it mean if Interference is Proactive?

Answer 3

• Older memories disrupt new ones, remembering to drive on the right when you go on holiday abroad to America

Question 4

What is Interference?

Answer 4

• When two pieces of info conflict with each other

Question 5

What is an Example of real-world interference?

Answer 5

• Application to the real-world
• Rugby players recall of teams played during season depended on how many matches they had played - the more they had played the worse interference was, increasing validity (Baddeley and Hitch)

Question 6

What potentially makes Baddeley and Hitch’s study seem artificial?

Answer 6

• Interference is unusual in everyday life. conditions necessary are rare, unlike lab studies, where researcher can create ideal conditions. Memories have to be similar and this doesn’t happen that often. Retrieval Failure due to lack of cues better explanation?

Question 7

What is a limitation of Interference, can it be overcome?

Answer 7

• Interference is temporary and can be overcome by cues. Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave pps list of words organized into categories (pps not told categories). Recall 70% for first list but became worse with learning more lists (proactive). At end pps were given recall test and told names of categories recall rose again to 70%. Shows interference is temporary, a finding not predicted by interference theory