interference theory Flashcards
what is the interference theory of forgetting?
- a theory that assumes that memory can be disrupted or interfered by whatever we have previously learnt or by what we will learn in the future
- information in the LTM may become confused or combined with other information during coding thus distorting or disrupting memories
-issue of availability
what are the two types of interference?
proactive interference- old memories disrupt new memories
retroactive interference- where new memories disrupt old memories
when is interference more likely to happen?
when the information is similar e.g students studying similar subjects at the same time often experience interference
what is research evidence in support of retro active interference?
Muller and Pilzecker (1990)
aim- to investigate retroactive interference
procedure- gave participants a list of nonsense words to learn in 6 minutes
-after retention interval, they were asked to recall the words
findings-performance was less good if participants had been given an intervening task (which was to describe landscapes from photos) between initial learning and recall.
supports because- the later task (describing the landscape) interfered with what had previously been learnt.
what is a real world study to support the interference theory?
Baddeley and Hitch (1977)
aim-to investigate interference in everyday life
procedure- asked rugby player to recall teams they’d previously played against during the season
-some rugby players missed games therefor the number of intervening games was different for each player
findings- players who’d played the most games forgot proportionally more than players who missed the games.
this support because- more similar items distort memory and therefor intervene with recall.
what is a weakness of the interference theory?
interference only explains some situations of forgetting.
while interference does occur in every day life, rather special conditions are required for interference to lead to forgetting. The two memories must be very similar. Anderson (2002) concluded that there’s no doubt that interference plays a key role in forgetting, but how much forgetting that can be attributed to interference remains unclear
