Memory Booklet 2: Forgetting Flashcards
What are the two examples of explanations for forgetting on the spec?
-Interference
-Retrieval failure
What are the two types of interference?
Retroactive and Proactive
What is the key study done on Interference theory?
Underwood and Postman’s - Interference investigation
What was the method for Underwood and Postman’s study?
-Participants divided into 2 groups
-Group A asked to learn words from list A paired with words from list B. They were then asked to learn a second list of word pairs - words from list A paired with words from list C
-Group B only asked to learn words from list A paired with words from list B
-Each participant given the first word from list A and asked to recall from: B or C for group A, B for group B
What was the results of Underwood and Postman’s study?
Participants in group A found it harder to recall from list B or C, whereas group B found it easier to recall from list B.
What does Underwood and Postman’s study show?
Retroactive interference
How can we remember which is which (proactive and retroactive)?
(P)roactive =
(P)ast learning interfering with new learning
(R)etroactive =
(R)ecent learning interfering with old learning
What is proactive interference by definition?
Older memories interfering and hindering newer ones
What is retroactive interference by definition?
Newer memories interfering with older ones
Interference is much more likely when memories are similar, what study was done into this?
McGeoch and McDonald
What was the method of McGeoch and McDonalds study?
Participants given a list of 10 adjectives to learn (List A). Once they were learned there was a resting interval of 10 minutes during which they learned list B followed by recall
What were the results of McGeoch and McDonalds study?
-If List B was a list of synonyms of List A, recall was poor (12%)
-If List B was nonsense syllables this had less effect (recall was 26%)
-If List B was numbers then recall was best (37%)
What does the findings of McGeoch and McDonalds study suggest?
Interference is strongest when the words/material being learnt is similar in meaning
What are the evaluations of interference?
😒Uses artificial stimuli (list of words)
😒Effects of interference may be temporary (Ceraso)
😒Evidence to suggest individual differences influence (Kane and Engle)
😊Evidence to support (Baddeley and Hitch)
😊Thousands of lab experiments have been carried out
What are the findings of Ceraso’s study?
Ceraso 1967 found that if memory was tested again 24 hours later, then recognition of the words showed considerable spontaneous recover