3 explanations for forgetting AO1 + 3

What is interference theory?

Forgetting occurs when two memories compete, causing one to be distorted or forgotten.

What are the two types of interference?

• Proactive interference (PI): Old memories disrupt new ones. (P→PAST)

• Retroactive interference (RI): New memories disrupt old ones. (R→RECENT)

what did jacoby et al suggests?

strength of old info interferes with new (weakness) info - PI

Conditions for interference to occur?

Memories must be similar, e.g., learning two similar word lists.

s: research support of pro interference

p: research to support proactive interference: old info interferes with new

e: underwood showed that ptps who were repeatedly asked to learn series of word lists made far more errors as the numbers of lists increased, compared with when they first began the study

e: as the ptps made more errors in the word list shown at the end of the study, this demonstrates how the old info (first words) was interfering with the new info (last words)

l: these results are exactly what the proactive interference aspect of the theory would predict

s: supportive research of retroactive interference

e: mcgeoch and mcdonal gave participants an orignial set of words to recall, then a second list which varied in similarity to the og list

e: the more similar the later test, the harder the original list was to recall

l: supports the RI and the role of similarity, which was predicted by the theory

w: evidence collected in lab studies

p: while this can be seen as extraneous variables being controlled improving internal validity, it is also in a artifical setting, which lacks context of real life memory use

e: for example, learning list of unconnected words (other ao3) is not how we tend to use memories in real life

e: this means that lab findings might not tell us much about the real world use of memories

l: low eco validity

link to weakness (artificial) : field studies

p: however there are some field studies which have tested interference theory in rl

e: baddeley n hitch asked rugby players to recall the names of the teammates of teams they had played over the season

e: their recall was not affected by how much time had passed but by how many other teams they had played in the intervening time

l: supports ri in a real life setting, increasing ecological validity