L2 - Forgetting and False memory

Question 1

What did Ebbinghaus (1879) do

Answer 1

Used novel nonsense syllables eg DOF - studied until could recall completely - after a delay, for retrieval he relearned same list and measured how much less time it took to relearn them

Question 2

What were Ebbinghaus (1879) key findings?

Answer 2

Found that memory for meaningless stimuli (nonsense) syllables decays rapidly over time - decrease in memory retrieval performance (forgetting) is non-linear between time of retention and how much info is lost

Question 3

What are the 3 modern methods of examining memory performance?

Answer 3

1. Recognition = trying to pick out presented old items from new items eg, “did you see ‘bread’ or ‘apples’?”
2. Free Recall = effortful retrieval from memory without external cues eg, “which foods did you see?”
3. Cued Recall = retrieval from memory using an associated cue, or hint eg, “can you complete this food item ‘a__l_s’?”

Question 4

What is the definition of proactive interference?

Answer 4

When old memories interfere with the retention of newer memories
e.g., move house and try to navigate way home but take wrong turns and go the wrong way / back to old house

Question 5

What did Bäuml and Kliegl (2013) do and find?

Answer 5

Study task = to learn lists of words
2 conditions:
1. PI condition = study list 1, remember list 1, study list 2
2. No PI = filler task, study list 2

Can see that immediately there is a large effect of PI, but as time goes on in test, are recalling less and less information - but can see that in control condition where they didn’t have that info to star with, much better recall initially and over time

Question 6

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 6

Where new memories ‘overwrite’ older ones
e.g., learning second language and forgetting words from first language

Question 7

What did Misra et al. (2012) study and find on the effects of RI?

Answer 7

Studied picture naming in bilinguals - Chinese speakers proficient in English
- If they named pictures in English first, their time to name pictures in Chinese was impaired
- Suggests that the formation of new memories (English names) leads to inhibition of competing old information (Chinese names)

Question 8

What did Godden and Baddeley (1975) study and find on the effect of environmental context on retrieval?

Answer 8

4 conditions: People learnt words either underwater or on land and then tested memory for words either on land or underwater
- Found that what is critical for memory performance is having same context as where words were learnt in first place
- Forgetting is greatest when there’s a poor match between the info in the memory trace and that’s available at retrieval (Tulving, 1979)

Question 9

Why do we forget?

Answer 9

Because old (PI) and new (RI) info interferes with retrieval
AND
Because retrieval context doesn’t match encoding

Question 10

How does consolidation work?

Answer 10

• New memories in fragile state and need to undergo a transfer to longer-lasting memories
• Transfer from the hippocampus to the neo-cortical regions
• When recent memories are retrieved, hippocampus is more active
• Vulnerable to interference

Question 11

What are reasons for consolidation to fail?

Answer 11

1. Failure to rehearse
2. Failure to sleep
3. Intoxication

Question 12

What did Moulton et al. (2005) find?

Answer 12

• Drinking alcohol BEFORE encoding impairs memory formation
• Drinking alcohol AFTER encoding has less interference with memories
• Better memory for info encoded before alcohol

Question 13

What did Palmer and Loftus find?

Answer 13

People who heard ‘smashed’ estimated that the car was going at a faster speed - false memory was created