EXPLANATIONS OF FORGETTING Flashcards
EXPLANATIONS OF FORGETTING
Interference theory and retrieval theory
interference theory
suggests that we forget things when the long term memories gets confused by other information when its coded.
pro active interference
old information disrupts new information.
- already stored information interferes with recalling something new.
retro active interference
new information disrupts old information.
- new information being stored interferes with recall of old information.
similarity?
information is more likely to occur when two pieces of information are similar which is due to response competition.
explanation for forgetting
retrieval failure due to absence of cues.
cue dependant forgetting
information is in LTM but forgetting occurs due to absence of appropriate cues encoded at a same time.
context dependent forgetting
inability to retrieve a memory due to the absence of the environmental triggrers or cues at the time of retrieval. for eg: learning a fact in classroom and struggling to remember it when asked to recall in a different classroom or struggling to remember a word until you are given a prompt.
state dependant forgetting
inability to retrieve a memory due to being in a different mental state at the time of retrieval to that when the memory was initially coded. for eg : learning new behaviour while being upset and struggling to remember it while being happier.
research in context dependent forgetting
Godden and Baddeley studied sea divers where they asked the participants to learn new materials either inwater or in dry land. it was found recall was worst if in a different context and best if same. for example : information learnt under water was recalled best under water . this suggests being in the same environment for both learning and recall aids recall by providing context cues.
research in state dependant forgetting
overton asked participants to learn materials either drunk or sober. it was found recall was worse if in different internal state and best if internal state was same. for eg: information learnt drunk was recalled best when drunk . this suggests that being in same state for both learning and recall aids recall by providing state dependant cues.
tulving and pearstone
tulving and pearstone asked participants to learn 48 words which were divided into 12 groups , each with 4 items and each 12 group was given a heading like name of fruits, animals etc. participants were asked to recall only the names in the list, not the headings.
- participants assessed in two conditions, one was the free recall condition where participants only had to recall the words and other was a cue recall condition where participants were given the cues i.e, the headings and recall was found to be better when cues were given. and this is an evidence for retrieval cues or the encoding specificity principle.
retrieval cues
prompts that we associate with a temporary memory.
two explanations of forgetting
interference theory and retrieval failure.
research for interference theory
baddeley and hitch asked participants who had played a varying number of rugby union games to remember as many of the teams they have played against with. interference theory was tested by assessing the recall by the number of games played and the trace decay theory was tested by assessing the time interval between games played.
it was found that forgetting occured more due to number of games played rather than time passed which supports interference theory rather than trace decay theory.
