Forgetting Flashcards Preview

Psychology Paper 1 > Forgetting > Flashcards

Flashcards in Forgetting Deck (12)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

Define ‘interferance’.

A

Interferance is when the recall of one memory blocks the recall of another, causing distorted perceptions of these memories.

2
Q

What is proactive interferance?

A

Proactive interferance is when the recall of an old memory blocks the recall of a new memory.

3
Q

What is retroactive interferance?

A

Retroactive interferance is when the recall of a new memory blocks the recall of an old memory.

4
Q

Who demonstrated retroactive interferance and what was their method?

A

McGeoch and McDonald (1931) found that the more similar the stimuli was to the original stimuli, the accuracy of recall decreased.

5
Q

Evaluate McGeoch and McDonald’s study (1 disadvantage and 1 advantage).

A

Disadvantages:
- Low mundane realism - artificial stimuli
Advantages:
- Supporting evidence from Baddeley and Hitch - asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they’ve played against. The more games they’d played, the worse their recall.

6
Q

Evaluate Baddeley and Hitch’s rugby players study.

A

Advantages:
- High mundane realism - meaningful stimuli
- Natural experiment - high ecological validity
Disadvantages:
- Ethnocentric sample - low populaton validity
- Natural experiment - lack of reliablity and less control over extraneous variables.
- Opportunity sample - low population validity

7
Q

Define ‘retrieval failure’.

A

Retrieval failure is when the cues that are present during encoding aren’t available during recall, leading to less accurate recall.

8
Q

What is context-dependent forgetting?

A

Context-dependant forgetting is when external cues at the time of encoding do not match those present at recall.

9
Q

What is state-dependant recall and who proposed it?

A

Carter and Cassaday

State-dependant recall is when the internal cues at the time of encoding aren’t present at the time of recall.

10
Q

What did Baddeley and Godden’s study find about context-dependant forgetting?

A

They found that recall, when in matching conditions, was 40% more accurate than in different conditions.

11
Q

Evaluate Baddeley and Godden’s study on context-dependant forgetting

A

Disadvantages:
- Low ecological validity - Baddeley argued that it was hard to get polar opposite conditions such as water and land.
- Repeated their study with different stimuli - they found no difference between the different conditions, which suggests that retrieval failure may only explain forgetting in certain types of memory.
Advantages:
- Quantitative data - reliable.

12
Q

Give supporting evidence for retrieval failure.

A
  • Eysenck - retrieval failure is the main reason we forget information in the LTM - supporting the theory of retrieval failure.