Psychology: Explanation of Forgetting Flashcards
What’s is meant by Interference?
Refers to the type of Forgetting caused by one memory disrupting another
What is meant by Retroactive and Proactive Interference?
Proactive Interference:
The process whereby old memories interfere with the ability to learn something new
Retroactive Interference:
The process whereby new learning interferes with the recall of old learning
Example of Retroactive Interference
Joseph has recently got a new mobile number and can finally remember it. After a few months, his mother asks him for his old number, and he can no longer recall it.
Example of Proactive Interference
Michele learned Spanish at primary school. However, when she started secondary school, she learned French as well as Spanish. One day the French teacher asked her what the word for ‘hello’ is , she replied ‘hola’
2 factors that will increase the likelihood of interference
- Similarity in information
- Short period of time between learning the different info
What are the Procedure and Findings of McGeoch and MacDonald’s study?
- Similarity makes forgetting more likely
- McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive Interference
- Participants learn lists of words
- Then given another list of either words or numbers
- The more similar the second list was to the 1st list, the worse the recall of the 1st list
- Shows that similarity increases effects of Retroactive Interference
How does the findings of McGeoch and McDonald’s study support the effects of interference on memory?
The more similar the info, the greater the interface. New list disrupts the old list = retrospective Interference
How does McGeoch and McDonald’s study different to how memory works in real life?
Gap between learning two word list was very short amount of time. Exaggerates interference. Interface does happen in real life but not to the same extent as shown in the study.
What is the Procedure and Findings of Baddeley and Hitch’s study?
- Asked rugby players to remember names of teams they had played so far in season and scores from matches
- Players had a better memory of the teams if they had played less games
- How long ago the matches were was less important - the more games played, the more similar info there is therefore more inference occurs
- Shows that interference rather than time had impact of Forgetting
How do the findings of Baddeley and Hitch’s study supports the effects Interference on memory?
The more games played, the more similar info there is and therefore more interference occurs
Does Baddeley and Hitch’s study have high external validity?
Yes can be applied to real life. Can not control extraneous variable.
What is the Procedure and Findings of Burke and Skrull’s study?
- Gave people magazine adverts to recall form memory e.g. different brands used
- The more similar the products were, the worse the recall
- Show that competitive interference occurred
How do the findings of Burke and Skrull’s study support the effects of interference on memory?
The more similar the adverts, the greater the interference –> similarity increases interference
How does time between learning the 2 sets of material effect levels of interference?
Most research studies have a short time between learning the two sets of materials, this exaggerates the effects of interference
How does using cues affect levels of interference?
Research by Tulving and Psotka showed that the effects of Interference is reduced if cues are used to aid memory
What is meant by Retrieval failure (due to absence of cues)?
Forgetting in LTM is mainly due to retrieval failure. This means that the material to be recalled is available (in there somewhere) but not accessible (not easily found) because of a lack of a suitable cue (prompt)
What is meant by ‘context dependent forgetting’?
Context Dependent cues relate to the place we are in when we encode a new memory. Being in this place when trying to recall the memory will act as a cue
What is meant by ‘State dependent forgetting’?
State Dependent cues relate to how the learner is feeling when they encode a new memory. Being in this ‘state’ when trying to recall the memory will act as a cue.
What is meant by the ‘Encoding Specificity Principle’?
Tulving
Encoding Specificity Principle. This states that a cue that helps us recall information has to be present at encoding (when we learn something) and at retrieval (when we want to recall it.) If it isn’t, forgetting occurs.
What is the Procedure and Findings of Godden and Baddeley’s study?
- Studies recall in Divers
- Learned and recalled list of words in 4 conditions:
1. Land - Water
2. Land - Land (BEST)
3. Water - Land
4. Water - Water (BEST) - Recall best if learning and recall is same context (place) as learning
How do the findings of Godden and Baddeley’s study support the effects of Retrieval failure on memory?
Context / Place acts as a cue for recall. If context is different at learning and recall –> forgetting occurs
Why might the effects of Retrieval failure be exaggerated in Godden and Baddeley’s study?
Extreme different contexts means the effect of retrieval failure are high in this in real life
What is the Procedure and Findings of Goodwin et al study?
- Each group tested on a variety of tasks including word association and picture recognition
1. Sober - Sober (BEST)
2. Sober - Drunk
3. Drunk - Sober
4. Drunk - Drunk (BEST)
Group 1 and 4 performed the best became it was the same condition for the learnt and recall
How do the findings of of Goodwin et al support the effects of state dependent forgetting’ on memory?
Internal state acts as a cue for recall. If context is different at learning and recall –> forgetting occurs.
How does research into the effects of Retrieval failure have useful real life application? (Abernathy or Smith’s findings)
- There are a number of studies that support the important of Retrieval cues
- There are lots of real life examples of cues aiding memory
E.g. Abernathy found that’s students do better in exams if they take them in a room where they did there learning
Why might research into factors affecting EWT have limited application to real life? E.g. why don’t Retrieval cues always work in real life?
Retrieval cues do not always work. Relying on things like state or context as a retail cue is not always effective. Many things we learn are complicated and multi-faceted (e.g. all you have learned about the multi-store model) and single cues (especially those related to context and/or state) are rarely effective in helping us to remember them.
Why is the ‘Encoding specificity principle’ difficult to test?
- Baddeley argues that the encoding specify principle is impossible to test out because it is a circular explanation.
- Difficult to prove that this is true because there is no way of knowing if cues were present at recall and Retrieval.
