Memory - Explanation for forgetting : Interference

Question 1

AO1

Answer 1

• Interference – forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten
• Proactive inference (PI) – forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similar
• Retroactive information (RI) – forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is again greater when memories are similar

Question 2

AO3

Answer 2

• A strength of interference is the evidence to support it
• For example, Underwood & Postman’s experiment on whether new learning interferes with previous learning showed that the group that learned only the first list had a higher recall accuracy compared to the group that had to learn a second list as well.
• This is a strength as it shows that the learning items in the second list interfered with participants’ ability to recall the list, showing retroactive inference
• However, the evidence can be argued that there was nothing shown to stop the first group from rehearsing the first list causing their maintenance rehearsal to help them recall the list better compared to the second group, reducing the usefulness of the evidence
• Despite this, the lab experiment has high internal validity showing the accuracy of the results
• Thus increasing the validity of the evidence for interference
• One strength of the research into interference is that it has real life application
• For example, Danaher et al found that both recall and recognition of an advertiser’s message were impaired when participants were exposed to two advertisements for competing brand within a week. By playing the same advertisement at the day,, it helped to eliminate any interference.
• This is a strength of the research as it can benefit the companies as the less interference in your memory of the advertisement, the more likely you will remember the company and the more likely you will buy something which means more products will be sold which in turn becomes more profit
• However, some may argue that this is not practical for all companies as it only works for larger companies as small companies may not be able to afford it. Additionally, larger companies that are well known are already in our LTM so it takes a while for any small companies to take an effect in LTM
• Despite this, this theory can be seen as useful because practical intervention can be made
  Thus creating a positive impact on the economy and increasing the validity of intervention
• A weakness of the research into interference is that it is a reductionist explanation
• For example, the research tells us that the only reason we forget things is due to information interference however, it also ignores the presence of factors like cues
• This is a weakness because it shows that it doesn’t account for every interference situation as in some cases where someone has long term memory damage as they won’t be able to be treated properly
• However, it can be argued that because of it’s reductionism, it does not ignore the complexity of interference and reductionism can help to increase the amount of detail for information interference
• Despite this, due to its reductionist view, interference has limited application in the world as it can’t explain every situation of forgetting, therefore decreasing its usefulness
• Thus showing that the research lacks external validity

(can be replicated for retrieval failure but change explanation sentence, say it ignores the fact that information can interfere with each other rather than the presence of cues)

Question 3

what are the two explanations for forgetting in interference

Answer 3

proactive interference
retroactive interference

Question 4

proactive and retroactive interference

Answer 4

Interference theory suggests that forgetting is due to information in LTM becoming confused with or disrupted by
other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall. There are two types of interference: proactive and
retroactive

Question 5

proactive

Answer 5

This involves memory impairment for something we have learned by other learning that had occurred previously.
In other words, old information interferes with the new information. Imagine that you had already learned
Spanish, and later learned French, then some of the Spanish would interfere with you trying to speak French.

Jacoby et al (2001) argued that proactive interference occurs because of competition between the strength of the
old learning and the weakness of the new learning. If you try to use a new password for an online transaction, the
strength of an old password will interfere, and you lose the ability to recall the new one. Perhaps a more damaging
example is calling your new partner by your old partner’s name!

Question 6

retroactive

Answer 6

This involves the disruption to recall of previously learned material by the interference of newly learned material
(newer information interferes with older information). For example, the learning of a new car registration number
plate disrupts the recall of the old one

Question 7

evaluation of interference theories of forgetting

Answer 7

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
There is research to support the impact of old information interfering with new
information. Underwood (1957) showed that participants, who were repeatedly asked
to learn series of word lists made far more errors as the number of lists increased,
compared with when they first began the study. As the participants made more errors
in the word lists shown at the end of the study, this demonstrates how the old
information (the first word lists) was interfering with the newly learned information (the
most recent list), which is what proactive interference would predict.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
chmidt et al. (2000) collected a sample of 211 former students of a Dutch
elementary school and sent them a map of the surrounding area of the school. The
map had the street names removed and replaced with numbers from 1 – 48.
Participants were asked to name as many as they could. The researchers found that
there was a positive association with how many times the participants had moved
outside the area, and the number of names forgotten. The researchers concluded that
learning new street names (when they moved house) made recalling the old street
names more difficult. This demonstrates that retroactive interference plays a role in
forgetting because the new information interferes with the old information. It also
shows that interference is key in forgetting and not just the amount of time that has
passed. This is because increased forgetting was due to how many times they had
moved not how long along they moved out of the area.

FAILS TO EXPLAIN
The explanations are limited due to the focus on interference of very similar types of
information. For example how one list of words interferes with another list however
interference theories fail to explain how forgetting information, skills or other
information happens in the majority of real life settings, where we are not juggling with
similar material and yet still manage to forget a lot of what we experience. Therefore
the explanations may be able to tell us how interference affects our memories in
artificial situations, and of very similar types of information, but they do not explain
most cases of forgetting in real-life.