Explanations of forgetting Flashcards
What is interference?
When two memories become mixed up with each other or conflict with each other. It is more likely when material is similar and learned quickly one after the other.
What is proactive interference?
Old information disrupts and interferes with new information.
What is retroactive interference?
New information disrupts and interferes with old information.
Provide an example of proactive interference
Someone asks you for your new phone number and you accidentally give them your old one instead.
Provide an example of retroactive interference
Someone asks what your old address was and you accidentally give them your new one instead.
Research support of interference - Underwood and Postman
Group 1 - had to learn a first list of word pairs and then a second set of word pairs eg cat-tree and then cat-glass
Group 2 - only had to learn the second list of word pairs eg only cat-glass
Group 2 had more accurate recall as the old information interfered with the recall of new information for Group 1
Research support of interference - McGeoch and McDonald
Ppts were given 10 words (list a) until they could recall them with accuracy. They were given a second list (list b) which was either synonyms, antonyms, numbers, words related to list b, 3 digit syllables or random.
Synonyms caused worst List A recall - 12%
Numbers had the least effect - 36%
Research support of interference - Baddeley and Hitch
Rugby players were asked to recall the names of teams recently played. Some players had missed games so for one player the last game could have been last week but for another months ago.
Recall for the last game was equally good for whenever the game was played but players that had missed games had better recall as new information interfered with old information for the players who played all games.
What are retrieval cues?
Stimuli that helps you to retrieve a certain memory.
What is the encoding specificity principle?
Suggests that memory is most effective if information that was present at encoding is also available at the time of retrieval. A cue doesn’t have to be an exact match but the closer the cue the better the recall.
What is context-dependent failure?
Occurs with external retrieval cues. Forgetting happens when the external environment is different at recall from how it was at coding.
What is state-dependent failure?
Occurs with internal retrieval cues. Forgetting happens when the internal environment of the individual is dissimilar at recall from when information was coded.
Research support of retrieval failure - Tulving and Pearlstone
Ppts had to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories eg apple in the category fruit. There were 2 recall conditions. 1 - recall as many words as they could ( free recall ) 2 - they were given cues as category names ( cued recall )
In free recall condition - 40% recall
In cued recall condition - 60% recall
Supports ESP that cues can prevent forgetting.
Research support of context dependent failure - Godden and Baddeley
18 divers were asked to learn lists of 36 words. There were 4 conditions - learn on beach = recall on beach, learn on beach = recall underwater, learn underwater = recall underwater and learn underwater = recall on beach
recall was better when context was the same for learning and recall ( beach - 13.5 underwater 11.4)
can be applied to real life and improves eye witness testimony.
Research support of state dependent failure - Goodwin et al
48 male medical students participated in a 2 day course of training and testing. They were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups - SS AA AS SA - S= sober A= alcohol. They had to preform 4 tasks - avoidance, verbal, word association and picture recognition.
More errors were made on day 2 in the AS and SA conditions as state was dissimilar and SS performed the best
Unethical and low reliability.
