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What is interference?
Two pieces of informations disrupt each other, resulting in the distortion/forgetting of one or both of the memories
Why would a LTM be forgotten?
If it cannot be accessed
What is proactive interference?
An older memory interferes with a newer one
What is retroactive interference?
When a newer memory interferes with an older one
What did McGeoch and McDonald (1931) research?
How retroactive interference affects memory by changing the amount of similarity between materials
What was McGeoch & McDonald (1931)’s procedure?
Participants learned 5 different lists of words, with a different degree of similarity, until they knew them 100%
They then learned a new list → after, they had to recall the original list of words
What were McGeoch and McDonald (1931)’s findings?
When participants were asked to recall the original list of words synonyms produced the worst recall
Control group with no new list recalled the most
Shows interference is strongest when memories are most similar
What are the strengths of interference theory?
Real-world evidence
Support from drug studies
What are the limitations of interference theory?
Other explanations
Interference may only cause a temporary loss
What real-world evidence is there to support interference theory?
Baddeley and Hitch (1977) asked rugby players to recall the names of the teams they played against during rugby season
Some players played more games than others due to injury
Players who played the most games had the poorest recall
Increases validity as it shows interference occurs in real life
What research support is there for interference theory?
Coenan & Luitelaar (1997) gave participants a list of words which they would later recall
When recalling under the influence of drugs, recall one week later was poorer than the placebo group
When the list was recalled before the drug was taken, later recall was better than the placebo
The drug improved recall of material learned beforehand
Wixted (2004) suggests the drug prevents new information being processed, so it cannot retroactively interfere with old information
What other explanations are there for forgetting?
The conditions required for interference to occur are rare - everyday forgetting may be better explained by retrieval failure
Why is interference theory only a temporary loss?
Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants lists of words, one at a time
Recall for the first list was 70%, but became progressively worse with each additional list → proactive interference
At the end, participants were given a cued recall test, which rose recall back to 70%
Suggests interference only causes a temporary loss of accessibility to LTM → not included in interference theory