M: Lesson 8: Forgetting

Question 1

What is forgetting?

Answer 1

Forgetting is used to refer to a person’s loss of ability to recall or recognise something that they have previously learned.

Question 2

What is interference theory?

Answer 2

• This theory claims that forgetting occurs when two lots of information become confused in memory.
• Interference is more likely to occur when the two lots of information are similar to one another.
• Interference is less likely to occur when there is a gap between the instances of learning.

Question 3

What is the difference between retroactive and proactive interference?

Answer 3

• Retroactive interference is when new learning affects the recall of old information
• Proactive interference is when old learning affects the recall of new information

Question 4

Positive evaluation of interference theory

Answer 4

• Underwood (1957) investigated proactive interference. He found that participants who learned ten lists of words could only recall 20% of the words from the first list the next day. Participants who learned one list of words recalled over 70% of the words the next day
• McGeoch and McDonald (1931) demonstrated retroactive interference. They gave participants lists of words that they had to learn until they could recall them with 100% accuracy. Participants then learned a new list. This list was either synonyms or antonyms of the original list. Participants given the list of synonyms had the worst recall. Learning two lists of words that have the same meaning would cause interference.
• This theory has practical applications. Students should be made aware of this theory so that they do not attempt to revise similar content/subjects at the same time, as this will make interference more likely to occur.