Memory: Lesson 8 - Forgetting: Interference

Question 1

What is forgetting?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is the interference theory?

Answer 2

A theory which claims that forgetting occurs when two lots of information become confused in memory

• it is more likely to occur when the two lots of information are similar to each other
• it is less likely to occur when there is a gap between the instances of learning

Question 3

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 3

When new learning affects the recall of old information

Question 4

What is proactive interference?

Answer 4

When old learning affects the recall of new information

Question 5

Evaluation of interference theory (Underwood) (+)

Answer 5

• Underwood investigated proactive interference
  + found that participants who learned 10 or more lists of words could only recall 20% of the words the next day
  + participants who learned one list of words recalled over 70% of words the next day

Question 6

Evaluation of Interference Theory (McGeoh and McDonald) (+)

Answer 6

+ demonstrated retroactive interference
+ gave participants lists of words that they had to learn until they could recall them with 100% accuracy
+ some participants were then told to learn a new list of synonyms and others antonyms
+ they then had to remember the original list
+ participants given the list of synonyms has the worst recall

Question 7

Evaluation of Interference theory (temporary loss of info)

Answer 7

• when interference occcurs, thenloss of information may only be temporary therefore interference is not a true explanation for forgetting because the information is not actually over-written and is still in LTM

Question 8

Evaluation for Interference Theory (retrieval failure) (Godden and Baddeley) (-)

Answer 8

• some psychologists argue that retrieval failure is a much better explanation for forgetting
• the theory suggests that people forget when there are not enough appropriate cues to help us remember
• godden and Baddeley got divers to learn and recall word lists either in land or underwater
• results showed that words learnt and recalled in the same context were better remembered as there were cues in the environment that helped them remember the words