Lesson 8: Forgetting; interference Flashcards
interference theory
- claims that forgetting occurs when two lots of information become confused in memory
- likely to occur when two lots of information are similar to one another
- less likely to occur when there is a gap between the instances of learning
retroactive interference
when new learning affects the recall of old learning
proactive interference
when old learning affects the recall of new information
positives of interference theory
- KEPPEL AND UNDERWOOD for proactive interference. They gave pps meaningless consonant trigrams at different intervals. Got them to count backwards in threes to prevent rehearsal and pps typically remembered the trigrams presented first. They concluded that the memory for earlier trigrams was interfering with the memory from later trigrams.
- MCGEOCH AND MCDONALD retroactive interference. Gave pps words to learn until they could be recalled with 100% accuracy. One group then learnt synonyms, another learnt antonyms of the word. When asked to recall original list, synonyms group had the worst recall so learning words with similar meanings to the first list would have caused retroactive interference.
- This theory has PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. Students should be made aware so that they do not attempt to revise similar content/subjects at the same time, as it will make interference more likely to occur.
negatives of interference theory
The loss of information from interference may only be temporary, therefore interference is not a true explanation of forgetting because the information is not actually over-written and is still in the LTM.
Some psychologists argue retrieval failure is a better explanation of forgetting in every day life. Godden and Baddeley got divers to learn and recall word lists on either dry land or underwater. Results showed that words learnt and recalled in the same context were better remembered as there were retrieval cues in the environment to aid recall.
