Lesson 5 - Forgetting - Proactive and Retroactive Interference Flashcards
What is forgetting?
Forgetting is where an individual is unable to access or recover information that has previously been stored in memory.
What is the interference theory? (2)
The interference theory suggests that forgetting can occur in the LTM because two memories are in conflict with one another.
This can occur is the memories are similar.
What are the two types of interference?
Proactive and Retroactive Interference
What is Proactive Interference?
When an OLD memory interferes with the forming of a new memory where previously stored information makes new information more difficult to store.
What is Retroactive Interference?
When a NEW memory interferes with old memories by overwriting previous memories which are similar to it.
What is an example of Proactive Interference?
When a teacher struggles to remember the names of students in her new class, due to the students’ names in her old class confusing her and making it harder to store the new information.
What is an example of Retroactive Interference?
When a teacher can no longer remember the names of the students in her old class due to the names of the students in her new class overwriting previous memories of her old class.
Who researched Interference? When?
McGeoch and McDonald (1931)
Describe how McGeoch and McDonald researched the Interference explanation of Forgetting:
Participants had to learn a lost of words accurately by 100%.
Participants then has to learn a list under 1 of 6 conditions where the list of words varied in terms of how similar they were to each other.
Condition 1 - Synonyms (same meaning)
Condition 2 - Antonyms (opposite meaning)
Condition 3 - Unrelated words
Condition 4 - Nonsense syllables
Condition 5 - 3-digit numbers
Condition 6 - Control group (no new list)
The control group recalled the most words (no new list where there was no interference between two conflicting memories (the two lists)).
The group who had to remember 3-digit numbers were best remembered after that due to digits not interfering with words.
The group who had the synonyms were worst remembered due to the old list conflicting with the new list due to them having similar meanings.
This shows how interference is most likely going to occur/memories are going to conflict with each other when they are similar.
What are 3 strengths of interference as an explanation of forgetting?
+ supported by many lab studies for example, where variables are highly controlled, meaning that extraneous variables are minimised, meaning that only the DV is being measured, making the research valid.
+ supported by many lab studies meaning that the results are reliable due to the results being gained are consistently the same.
+ supported by McGeoch and McDonald’s, and Baddeley and Hitch’s studies.
Describe Baddeley and Hitch’s research that supports interference as an explanation of forgetting: When?
(1977)
Baddeley and Hitch asked rugby players to remember the names of teams they had played previously in the season. The participants that took part in the study had played different amounts of games due to suspensions and injuries.
Baddeley and Hitch discovered that the accurate recall of the names of teams that they had played did not depend on how long ago they had played the team (they could remember teams they had played 1 day ago just as accurately as teams that they had played 3 weeks ago) but depended on how many games the participants had played.
For example, the more games that the rugby players had played, the greater the risk of new teams they had played, overwriting their memory of old teams that they had played (this supports the Retroactive Interference explanation of forgetting). The less games that they had played, the easier it was to remember the names of teams, no matter how long ago it was, because the memories of the names of teams had not been overwritten (where similar memories were in conflict with one another, making it harder to remember them).
What is a strength of Baddeley and Hitch’s research study?
It is a natural experiment, meaning that it had high ecological validity where it reflects the real world. This means that interference as an explanation of forgetting can be applied to everyday situations.
What are 3 weaknesses of interference as an explanation of forgetting?
- most of the supporting evidence are lab studies which lack ecological validity due to the artificiality of the tasks and location which means that researchers don’t actually know if interference occurs in the real world, or just in lab studies.
- in lab studies, the time period participants have between learning lists of words and then recalling them again, tends to be very short for example, 20 minutes. In the real world, the time period between learning and recalling words tends to be much longer, meaning that research support may lack validity as it doesn’t reflect how we learn and recall information in the real world (the ability that participants have to recall information may be exaggerated due to the short time period allowing them to have better memory/recall the words more easily).
- Interference as an explanation may not be relevant to the real world due to research proving that interference can be overcome through the use of cues which trigger information being recalled -
Tulving and Psotka have participants 5 lists comprised of 24 words. Each list was organised into categories. Tulving and Psotka discovered that recall was about 70% for the first list. Then, the accuracy decreased as the lists went on, ultimately due to interference. However, when participants were reminded of each category, a cue used as a trigger for information, the accuracy of words recalled went back to 70% for each list, cancelling out the problem of interference.
This suggests that memories of the words were stored in the LTM, but needed a cue to trigger accurate recall.
