Interference Theory Flashcards
Interference theory: explanation
IT sees forgetting as due to information in LTM becoming confused with or disrupted by other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall. There are two forms, one being proactive interference,happens when older memories that are already stored disrupt the recall of newer memories.. Another is retroactive interference which happens when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. Generally researched by getting participants to learn two lists of word pairs, where the first word of each pair is the same in both lists. After memorising them, participants are given the first word of a pair and asked to recall which word goes with it.
Interference theory: evaluation: Strength 1
Support from research, Baddeley and Hitch got participants who played a varying number of rugby union games to remember as many of the teams they had played as possible. It was found that forgetting was due more to the number of games played rather than time passed between games, supporting interference theory rather than decay theory. This showed that interference can be applied to everyday situations and there is high ecological validity
Interference theory: evaluation: Strength 2
Evidence from lab studies – interference is one of the most consistently demonstrated findings.Most of these studies show that PI and RI are common ways information can be forgotten from the LTM.This is a strength because lab experiments have control over variables so suggest that the results are valid.
Interference theory: evaluation: Limitation 1
Artificial materials-There is a greater chance that interference occurs in a lab than in real life situations due to the fact that the stimulus material used are normally a list of words.This is different to what people remember on a daily basis such as birthdays and recipes.This is a limitation because the use of artificial tasks makes interference more likely in the lab which means that interence isn’t applicable to forgetting in everyday life.
Interference theory: evaluation: Limitation 2
Time between learning-lab experiments are designed to maximise the possibility of interference.For practical reasons the time between learning and recalling the list of words is relatively short.The whole experience of learning and recalling should be around an hour long.This means that the results don’t reflect the actual process of interference.
