proactive and retroactive interference Flashcards
what theory did Hermann Ebbinghaus propose
decay theory
what is decay theory
all that was needed for people to forget was the passage of time
how is the passage of time linked to forgetting
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
what is interference
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.
what is proactive interference
when old information stored in long term memory interferes with learning of new information
Past affects new learning
when does proactive interference usually occur
when new information is similiar to the old information
give an example of proactive interference
when you get a new phone number your memory for your old number will disrupt your attempts to remember your new number
what is retroactive interference
when learning of new information interferes with recall of old information in long term memory
Recent affects old learning
give an example of retroactive interference
once you have learned your new mobile number it becomes difficult to recall your old number
what did McGeogh and McDonald study in 1931
they were testing retroactive interference. they wanted to see if the more recent information (the new list) would interfere with the first old list
what did McGeogh and McDonalds experiment consist of
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
how many groups were there in McDonald and McGeogh’s study
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
describe the six groups used
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)
what were the findings of McDonald and McGeogh’s experiment
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
what was the conclusion of McDonald’s and Mcgeogh’s experiment
the degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similiar
what are the limitations of McDonald and McGeogh’s experiment
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).
why is the interference theory often questioned
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.
what did Baddeley and Hitch conduct a study on
forgetting with rugby players. they wanted to find out if interference could better explain forgetting than simply the passage of time
what was different about Baddeley and Hitch’s study
it was a real life study
what did Baddeley and Hitch do
they asked rugby players to try to recall the names of all the other rugby teams they played so far during the season.
what was similar and different in terms of the number of games the rugby players played.
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.
what were the findings of Baddeley and Hitch’s experiment
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.
how did playing more games affect the memory of the rugby players
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.
what did Baddeley and Hitch’s study show
interference can explain forgetting in at least some real world situations which adds credibility to the theory
what was the aim of the Schmidt study
to assess the influence of retroactive interference upon the memory of street names learned during childhood
who took part in Schmidt’s study
700 names were randomly selected from a database of 1700 former students at a Deutsch elementary school.
what did Schmidt send participants to complete
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
what did Schmidt make participants do
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.
how did Schmidt assess retroactive interference
it was assessed by the number of times the individual had moved to another neighbourhood or city (thus learning new sets of street names)
what were the fndings of Schmidt’s experiment
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
what did Schmidt conclude from his findings
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
give one limitation of the interference theory
interference can be overcome by using cues
what did Tulving and Psotka do in 1971
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
why did the researchers not tell the participants what the categories were
they assumed it would be obvious to the participants
what was recall like after shown the first list (tulving&psotka)
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
what happened to the recall after researchers gave participants a cued recall test
they told them the categories for the word lists. memory recall improved back up to 70%.
what did tulving and psotka’s study show
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
