Explanations for Forgetting - Interference Flashcards
What are is proactive interference?
An older memory interferes with a newer memory.
What is retroactive interference?
When a newer memory interferes with an older one.
What was McGeoch and McDonald’s research?
They studied RI by changing the amount of similarity between sets of materials. They learned a list of words perfectly, then learned a new list. These could be lists of synonyms, antonyms, unrelated words, trigrams or numbers.
What were McGeoch and McDonald’s findings?
When the participants were asked to recall the original list of words, the most similar material produced the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.
What is the explanation for McGeoch and McDonald’s findings?
It could be due to PI - previously stored information makes new similar information harder to store. It could also be due to RI - new information overwrites previous memories because of the similarity.
What is the evaluation - Real-world examples?
One strength is that there is evidence of interference in everyday situations. Baddeley and hitch asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against. They had all played the same length of time (one season) but differing numbers of matches. Players who played the most games had the poorest recall. This shows that interference can operate in at least some real-world situations, increasing validity.
What is the limitation - Tulving and Psotka?
They gave participants lists of words, organised into categories, one list at a time. Recall was 70% for the first list, and decreased with every consecutive list. this is proactive interference. At the end of the test they were given a cued recall test - told the names of the categories. Recall returned to 70%. This shows that interference causes a temporary loss of accessibility, which is not predicted by interference theory.
What is the strength - Coenan and Luijtelaar?
They gave participants a list of words and later asked them to recall the list, assuming the intervening experiences would act as interference. They found that when a list of words was learnt under the influence of diazepam, recall 1 week later was poor. When the list was learned before the drug was taken, later recall was better than placebo. This shows that the drug improved recall of material. They suggested that the drug prevents new information being learnt, therefore preventing RI. This shows forgetting can be due to interference.
