proactive and retroactive interference

Question 1

what theory did Hermann Ebbinghaus propose

Answer 1

decay theory

Question 2

what is decay theory

Answer 2

all that was needed for people to forget was the passage of time

Question 3

how is the passage of time linked to forgetting

Answer 3

when we learn and encode information into our memory, a certain amount of time goes by before we try to recall that information. during that passage of time, we’re more likely engaged in other tasks

Question 4

what is interference

Answer 4

we tend to forget when two memories get confused with or become mixed up with eachother. the more similar information is, the more it is thought to lead to interference.

Question 5

what is proactive interference

Answer 5

when old information stored in long term memory interferes with learning of new information
Past affects new learning

Question 6

when does proactive interference usually occur

Answer 6

when new information is similiar to the old information

Question 7

give an example of proactive interference

Answer 7

when you get a new phone number your memory for your old number will disrupt your attempts to remember your new number

Question 8

what is retroactive interference

Answer 8

when learning of new information interferes with recall of old information in long term memory
Recent affects old learning

Question 9

give an example of retroactive interference

Answer 9

once you have learned your new mobile number it becomes difficult to recall your old number

Question 10

what did McGeogh and McDonald study in 1931

Answer 10

they were testing retroactive interference. they wanted to see if the more recent information (the new list) would interfere with the first old list

Question 11

what did McGeogh and McDonalds experiment consist of

Answer 11

they were given a first list (original list) where participants learned 10 words until they could recall them with 100% accuracy.
they were then given a new list of other items

Question 12

how many groups were there in McDonald and McGeogh’s study

Answer 12

there were 6 groups in the study, each had a different list ot learn. the list varied in terms of how similiar they were in the original list

Question 13

describe the six groups used

Answer 13

group 1 - synonyms (words with the same meaning as the original list)
group 2 - antonyms (words with the opposite meanings as the original list)
group 3 - unrelated word list
group 4 - list of consonant syllables
group 5 - a list of three digit numbers
group 6 - no list (control)

Question 14

what were the findings of McDonald and McGeogh’s experiment

Answer 14

when participants were asked to recall the original ten words, recall was the worst (forgetting occured the most) when the new list was similiar to the original list of words. the synonyms caused the most confusion

Question 15

what was the conclusion of McDonald’s and Mcgeogh’s experiment

Answer 15

the degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similiar

Question 16

what are the limitations of McDonald and McGeogh’s experiment

Answer 16

they used artificial tasks to study memory. this often the case with laboratory research where they have high control of variables. most of the 2nd tasks each of the groups carried out are artifical and not typical of everyday life (we dont often try to learn a list of words that have the same meaning or a list of 3 digit number).

Question 17

why is the interference theory often questioned

Answer 17

for interference to occur, two memories have to be fairly similar in order to interfere with each other. this may happen occassionally in everyday life for e.g. if you revise similiar subjects. but that doesnt really happen that often. as a result the interference explanation is sometimes questioned when its based on research that lacks ecological validity.

Question 18

what did Baddeley and Hitch conduct a study on

Answer 18

forgetting with rugby players. they wanted to find out if interference could better explain forgetting than simply the passage of time

Question 19

what was different about Baddeley and Hitch’s study

Answer 19

it was a real life study

Question 20

what did Baddeley and Hitch do

Answer 20

they asked rugby players to try to recall the names of all the other rugby teams they played so far during the season.

Question 21

what was similar and different in terms of the number of games the rugby players played.

Answer 21

the same amount of time had passed for all the rugby players but they hadn’t all played the same number of games because of injuries.

Question 22

what were the findings of Baddeley and Hitch’s experiment

Answer 22

they found that the amount of time that had passed was NOT a key factor in their ability to recall. they didnt have trouble recalling the matches they played at the beginning of the season.

Question 23

how did playing more games affect the memory of the rugby players

Answer 23

the more games they had played was more significant in affecting their memory. if between their last game and the team they played five weeks ago, there were four other teams they played, it was a lot harder for them to accurately recall than the rugby players who hadnt played for five weeks due to injury.

Question 24

what did Baddeley and Hitch’s study show

Answer 24

interference can explain forgetting in at least some real world situations which adds credibility to the theory

Question 25

what was the aim of the Schmidt study

Answer 25

to assess the influence of retroactive interference upon the memory of street names learned during childhood

Question 26

who took part in Schmidt’s study

Answer 26

700 names were randomly selected from a database of 1700 former students at a Deutsch elementary school.

Question 27

what did Schmidt send participants to complete

Answer 27

Participants were sent a questionnaires to complete. 211 participants responded (ages from 11-79 years old). Other personal details collected included how many times they had moved house, where they lived and for how long, how often they had visited Molenburg

Question 28

what did Schmidt make participants do

Answer 28

Participants were given a map of the Molenburg neighbourhood with all 48 street names replaced with numbers. participants were asked to remember as many of the street names as possible.

Question 29

how did Schmidt assess retroactive interference

Answer 29

it was assessed by the number of times the individual had moved to another neighbourhood or city (thus learning new sets of street names)

Question 30

what were the fndings of Schmidt’s experiment

Answer 30

there was a positive association between the number of times participants had moved house outside the Molenburg neighbourhood and the number of street names they had forgotten

Question 31

what did Schmidt conclude from his findings

Answer 31

the findings suggested that learning new patterns of street names when moving house makes remembering old patterns of street names harder to do. retroactive interference explains forgetting in some real life situations

Question 32

give one limitation of the interference theory

Answer 32

interference cant be overcome by using cues

Question 33

what did Tulving and Psotka do in 1971

Answer 33

they gave participants 5 lists of 24 words. they were made up of categories however, these categories were not explicitly told to them as they were mixed up

Question 34

why did the researchers not tell the participants what the categories were

Answer 34

they assumed it would be obvious to the participants

Question 35

what was recall like after shown the first list (tulving&psotka)

Answer 35

on the first list, recall was 70% accurate but recall of this first list got worse after each new additional list of 24 words were given to them to learn. this is presumably because of interference

Question 36

what happened to the recall after researchers gave participants a cued recall test

Answer 36

they told them the categories for the word lists. memory recall improved back up to 70%.

Question 37

what did tulving and psotka’s study show

Answer 37

that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility to memories that are still in long term memory but this can be overcome with the use of cues