Lesson 8 - Forgetting: Interference

Question 1

Define Forgetting

Answer 1

• A person’s loss of ability to recall or recognise something that they have previously learned

Question 2

What is Interference Theory?

Answer 2

• Claims that forgetting occurs when two lots of information become confused in memory
• It is more likely to occur when the information is similar
• It is less likely to occur when there is a gap between learning them

Question 3

What are the two types of Interference?

Answer 3

• Retroactive Interference: when NEW learning affects recalling OLD information
• Proactive Interference: when OLD learning affects the recall of NEW information

Question 4

Evaluation (+)

Answer 4

• Underwood (1957) found that participants who learned 10+ lists of words could only recall 20% of the words the next day. But participants that learned one list recalled over 70% the next day (Proactive)
• McGeoch + McDonald (1931) gave participants lists of words they had to learn until they had 100% recall accuracy. Participants learned a new list. The new list was either synonyms or antonyms. When participants were asked to recall the first list, people with the secondary synonym list had worse recall (retroactive)
• Has practical applications e.g students should be made aware of this theory so they do not revise similar subjects at the same time as this can increase chances of interference

Question 5

Evaluation (-)

Answer 5

• The loss of information may only be temporary, so interference is not a true explanation for forgetting because the info is not overwritten and is still in LTM
• Psychologists argue that retrieval failure is a better explanation for forgetting. It says there are not enough appropriate cues to help us remember e.g Baddeley got divers to learn word lists on either dry land or under water. Recall was better when the divers were in the same context when they learned it.