Interference Theory

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13 Terms

1
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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

2
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Why would a LTM be forgotten?

If it cannot be accessed

3
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What is proactive interference?

An older memory interferes with a newer one

4
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What is retroactive interference?

When a newer memory interferes with an older one

5
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What did McGeoch and McDonald (1931) research?

How retroactive interference affects memory by changing the amount of similarity between materials

6
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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

7
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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

8
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What are the strengths of interference theory?

  • Real-world evidence

  • Support from drug studies

9
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What are the limitations of interference theory?

  • Other explanations

  • Interference may only cause a temporary loss

10
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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

11
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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

12
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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

13
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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