interference - evaluation

Question 1

Real-life studies have supported the interference explanation

Baddley and Hitch

Answer 1

• Baddeley and Hitch (1977) demonstrated retroactive interference by showing that the more games rugby players had played, the worse their recall of the team names they had played
• interference accounts for some forgetting

Question 2

Evidence from lab studies consistently demonstrates interference in memory

Answer 2

• Many lab experiments have been carried out into interference e.g. McGeoch and McDonald’s research on the effects of similarity
• Most of these studies show that both types of inference are very likely causes of forgetting from LTM
• Lab experiments control extraneous variables

Question 3

The time allowed between learning in research

Answer 3

• Time periods between learning lists of words and recalling them are quite short in lab studies
• This does not reflect how we learn and remember most
  information in real life
• The conclusions from research into forgetting in LTM may not generalise outside the lab

Question 4

Interference effects may be overcome using cues

Answer 4

• Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave Ps five lists of 24 words, each organised into six categories e.g. metals, fruit, etc
• Recall was about 70% for the first list, but this fell as each additional list was learned, presumably due to interference
• However, when given a cued recall test (told about the names of the categories) recall rose to 70% again