Forgetting: Interference

Question 1

What is interference ?

Answer 1

• when two pieces of information disrupt eachother
• May result in forgetting one or both pieces of info
• May distort the information
• More likely to lead to forgetting of the LTM as we cant access memories if though they are available

Question 2

What is retroactive interference ?

Answer 2

When new info interferes with remembering old info
E.g. calling an old student a new students name
retro = old under attack

Question 3

What is proactive interference ?

Answer 3

When something we previously learned interferes with remembering newer info
E.g. old pin code with new pin code
pro = new under attack

Question 4

What was McGeoch and McDonald’s research on the effects of similarity ?

Answer 4

In both PI and RI, interference is worse when the memories are similar, this was found by these two psychologists.

Procedure: Studied RI by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of words. Participant had to remember 10 words with 100% success. They then learned a new list. 6 participants received 6 different lists.
Group 1 = Synonyms
Group 2 = Antonyms
Group 3 = words unrelated to original
Group 4 = consonant syllables
group 5 = three digit numbers
Group 6 = just retested (control)

Findings = When the participant were asked to recall the original, the synonyms produced the worst recall, then antonyms.
This may because of PI (previously stored makes it difficult for new to be stored) or because of RI (new information overwrites previous similar memories).

Question 5

What are the strengths of forgetting due to interference ?

Answer 5

Real-world interference :
Baddeley and Hitch - asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they had played during a season. These players had all played the same time but a different number of matches. Those who played more games had worse recall.

Support from drug studies:
Coenen and van Luijtelaar: gave participants a list of words and later asked to recall the list. They found when a list was learned under diazepam recall was poorer (in comparison to a control group) but when the drug was taken before the new info, recall increased. Due to drug preventing new info reaching the brain so no retrospective interference can happen.

Question 6

What is a limitation of forgetting through interference ?

Answer 6

Interference and Cues:
- Interference is temporary and can be overcome by using cues.
- Tulving and Psotka gave participants lists of words organised into categories
- Recalled averaged at 70% for the first list but got progressively worse
- At the end they did a cued recall and the recall rose again to 70%, showed that there was a temporary loss buy the material was still accesible by cues