Explanations of Forgetting Flashcards
(22 cards)
What’s decay theory?
- forgetting because information is no longer stored in our long term memory
Define Forgetting
- failure to retrieve memories
What’s interference theory?
- information in LTM becomes confused with other information, resulting in forgetting
- proactive interference
- retroactive interference
What’s proactive interference?
- an old memory interferes with a new memory
What’s retroactive interference?
- a new memory interferes with an old memory
What increases the likelihood of interference?
- when the memories are similar
- when there’s no gap between learning each memory
McGeogh and McDonald (1931) Experiment
- studied retroactive interference
- changed the level of similarity between two sets of material
- participants had to learn a list of words until they had 100% accuracy
- they then learned a new list
- 6 groups of participants who learned different types of lists
McGeogh and McDonald (1931) Findings
- when the participants recalled the original list, their performance depended on the nature of the second list
- the most similar material produced the worst recall
- shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar
Strength - evidence from lab studies
- e.g. McGeogh and McDonald
- studies show that both types of interference are common reasons for forgetting in LTM
Weakness - artificial materials
- materials used in lab experiments are lists of words/letters to learn
- this isn’t how we use memory in everyday life
- doesn’t apply to everyday life
Weakness - time between learning
- in lab studies, time between learning lists of words can be very short
- this maximises the chance of interference
- results therefore lack external validity
- this isn’t how we use our memory in real life
What’s retrieval failure?
- being unable to access a memory
- forgetting due to insufficient cues
- when memories are stored, associated cues are stored at the same time
- if cues are not available at recall, retrieval failure may occur
What’s the encoding specificity principle (ESP)?
- a cue has to be present at encoding and retrieval to help recall
- forgetting will occur if the cues are different at encoding and recall, or absent
- there are external cues and internal cues
what’s an external cue?
environmental/contextual cues
context dependent forgetting - external cues
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
- studied deep sea divers
- divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land
- four conditions (learn on land - recall on land, learn on land - recall underwater, learn underwater - recall underwater, learn underwater - recall on land)
- accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions
what’s an internal cue?
- physiological or psychological cues
state dependent forgetting - internal cues
Carter and Cassaday (1998)
- gave anti-histamine drugs to their patients, making them drowsy
- participants learned lists of words
- four conditions (learn on drug - recall on drug, learn on drug - recall off drug, learn off drug - recall off drug, learn off drug - recall on drug)
- recall significantly worse when unmatched
strength - supporting evidence
- Godden and Baddeley diver study
- Carter and Cassaday drug study
- Eysenck (2010) argued that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting
- increased validity
weakness - issues with ESP
- not scientifically testable
- can’t establish whether or not the cue has been encoded
- we just assume the presence of cues aid recall
weakness - questioning context effects
- Baddeley (1997) argued that context effects aren’t very strong
- different contexts have to be very different to see an effect
- studies use artificial tasks
what’s cue overloading?
when a retrieval cue is associated with multiple memories, you’re more likely to forget
what’s cue dependent forgetting
- if two memories are similar, they’re likely to be associated with the same retrieval cue
- we could end up retrieving the other memory
