Forgetting

What are the 2 types of forgetting in LTM?

• Proactive and Retroactive interference

• Retrieval Failure due to absence of cues

What is the difference between availability and accessibility?

Availability: wether memory are gone

Accessibility: wether we can reach the memories

What is interference? What are the 2 types?

Interference: when one memory disturbs the ability to recall another

• Might result in forgetting or distorting one or the other or both

• More likely to happen if the memories are similar

Proactive: old information interferes with new information

Retroactive: new information interferes with old information

What is cue-dependent forgetting?

• Explains forgetting in LTM as a retrieval failure - information cannot be accessed

• Forgetting is due to a lack of cues

• Cues can be linked meaningfully or not meaningfully (context/state dependent)

• When we learn information, we also encode the context (external cues) in which we learn the information and the mental state we’re in (internal state)

What is the ‘Encoding specificity principle’?

Tulving (1972) - Encoding specificity principle - retrieval failure forgetting

• The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory

What are the 7 studies investigating forgetting?

• Carter and Cassaday (1998) - retrieval failure - state-dependent cues

• Tulving and Psotka (1971) - interference

• Burke and Skrull (1988) - interference

• Godden and Baddeley (1975) - retrieval failure - context-dependent

• Aggetton and Waskett (1999) - retrieval failure - context -dependent

• Baddeley and Hitch (1977) - interference

• McGeoh and McDonald (1931)

What was the Carter and Cassaday (1998) study?

RF - S

• Gave antihistamine drugs to participants - slightly drowsy - creates an internal psychological state different from the ‘normal’ state

• They had to learn a list of words and passages of prose - then recall later

4 conditions:

1. Learn on drug - recall on drug

2. Learn not on drug - recall when on drug

3. Learn on drug - recall when not on drug

4. Learn not on drug - recall not on drug

• Performance significantly worse when there was a mismatch between internal state during learning and recall

• When cues are absent = more forgetting

What was the Tulving and Psotka (1971) study?

Interference + cues - RF

• Gave participants lists of words organised into categories - one list at a time

• Recall averaged about 70% for the 1st time - became progressively worse as participants learned each additional list

• At the end, participants were given a cued recall test - got the names of the categories and recall rose to about 70%

What was the Burke and Skrull (1988) study?

Interference

• Presented a series of magazine adverts to participants - had to recall details

• Some had more difficulty in recalling earlier adverts - retroactive

• Some had more difficulty in recalling the later adverts - proactive

• Effect was greater when the adverts were similar - competitive interference

What was the Godden and Baddeley (1975) study?

RF - C

• Divers learnt a list of words - recall later

4 conditions:

1. Learn on land - recall on land

2. Learn underwater - recall on land

3. Learn on land - recall underwater

4. Learn underwater - recall underwater

• Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions - external cues available were different from the ones at recall

What was the Aggleton and Waskett (1999) study?

RF - C

• Jorvik Museum - designed so you can ‘travel back in time’ to 1000 years ago (Viking times) - including smells

• Recreating these smells helped people to recall the details of their trip to the museum - even after several years

What was the Baddeley and Hitch (1977) study?

Interference - proactive

• Asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they played against during a season

• All players had played for the same time interval - number of intervening games varied due to missed matches

• Players who played most games had poorest recall

What was the McGeoh and McDonald (1931) study?

• Participants learnt a list of 10 words until they can remember them with 100% accuracy - then they learnt a new list

6 conditions:

1. Synonyms - same meanings

2. Antonyms - opposite meanings

3. Words unrelated to the original list

4. Consonant syllables

5. Three-digit numbers

6. No new list - participants rested

• Performance depended on the nature of the 2nd list

• Synonyms had the worst recall - interference is strongest when the memories are similar