forgetting Interference

A01-Interference

• When one memory interferes with (prevents/blocks) the recall of another.

  Two types:

• Proactive Interference - When an older memory interferes with a newer one. Proactive is therefore meaning working forwards from old to new.

• Retroactive Interference - When a newer memory interferes with an older one. Retroactive is therefore meaning working backwards from new to old.

A01-McGecho and Mc Donald’s

• Studied retroactive interference – investigated how similarity affected interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials.

• Participants had to learn a list of ten words, followed by one of six new list of words. The second list consisted of either synonymous ,antonyms unrelated ,adjectives, constant syllables numbers .

Findings:

• The group who had the synonymous had the worst recall when asks remember the original list

• The more similar the material, the worse participants performed – shows that interference is strongest when memories are similar.

A03-laboratory experiment

• Thousands of lab experiments have demonstrated interference in memory

• Mc Gecho and Mc Donald