PAPER 1 - MEMORY - explanations of forgetting - interference theory & retrieval failure Flashcards
what are the 2 types of interference?
- proactive interference
- retroactive interference
what is proactive interference?
pervious learning interfering with new memories
what is retroactive interference?
recent memories interfering with ability to recall older memories
what is an example of paired associated learning?
- participants in experimental condition learn a list of words on list A paired with words on list B
- list A words are now paired with list C words
- then only given words from list A and asked to then recall words paired from list C
- findings indicated recall was poor compared to control condition where they only needed to learn the word pairs from list A and C
what is an everyday example of proactive interference?
- recently got a new mobile phone with new phone number, you find yourself confusing the new number with your old one
what did McGeoch and McDonald carry out?
- experimented effects of similarity of materials
- gave participants list of 10 adjectives (list A) which was learned and then there was a 10 minute interval when they learned list B
- if list B was:
synonyms -12% recall
nonsense syllables - 26% recall
numbers - 37% recall
what is a strength of interference theory?
examples are present in everyday life so can be applied to real life
what are some limitations of interference theory?
- 2 similar competing memories will not always be muddled or forgotten/ interfered with so can only explain SOME forgetting
- evidence is artificial/ lab, nonsense trigrams/ symbols
—low ecological validity and mundane realism and doesn’t reflect everyday life
what is mundane realism?
does it relate to how we use our memory in everyday life
what are the 2 explanations for forgetting?
interference and retrieval failure
what is one explanation of retrieval failure?
encoding specificity principle
what is the encoding specificity principle?
when we acquire memories we encode them with links to other information which existed at the time of acquisition (becoming a possible retrieval cue)
who proposed the encoding specificity principle?
tuvling and thomson (1973)
what did Tulving argue about forgetting?
argued that forgetting occurs when there is a poor match fit between information contained in memory trace and cues available at time of retrieval
what does the encoding specificity suggest about recall?
recall is more effective when the information that was present at the time of encoding is also available at the time of retrieval
what are the 2 types of cues?
- external cues
- internal cues
what are the 2 types of external cues?
- explicit cues linked to learning material
- environmental context
what is 1 type of internal cue?
emotional/ physiological state
what is context dependent forgetting?
when individuals fail to recall something because they are not in the same context at retrieval as they were when they learned the information
what is state dependent forgetting?
being in a different physiological state at encoding and retrieval may result in retrieval failure
what does the Godden and Baddeley scuba divers study suggest about forgetting?
participants learned a list of unrelated words either on land or under water, they were tested in either same or different context
- recall was highest in initial learning context
what does the study by Smith (1979) suggest about forgetting?
- participants learned list of 80 words whilst in a distinctive basement room, next day they had to recall those words
- group 1 recalled them in same basement (recall - 18)
- group 2 recalled them in upstairs room (recall - 12)
- group 3 recalled in upstairs room but imagine they were in basement (recall - 17)
what are the strengths of retrieval failure?
- real world application
- lots of research support
- retrieval failure explains interference effects
what are the limitations of retrieval failure?
- retrieval cues do not always work (cue effectiveness reduced when in presence of better cues)
- danger of circularity - cues do not cause retrieval, only associated