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explanations for forgetting (Interference Theory= explanation for…
explanations for forgetting
Forgetting= failure to retrieve memories
Interference Theory= explanation for forgetting when similar material/ other info is confused in recall from the long term memory. 2 types of interference
PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE- when past memories interferes with an attempt to recall something new.
RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE- when newly learned info interferes with the recall of old info.
HOW IS INTERFERENCE USUALLY RESEARCHED?
Getting participants to learn 2 lists of word pairs- where first word of eah word pair is the same in both lists - after lists have been memorised pps given the first word of a pair and asked to recall which word goes with it - when proactive interference occurs- pps recall the 1st list of word pairs while with retroactive interference- the 2nd list of word pairs is recalled
RESEARCH TO SUPPORT INTERFERENCE THEORY
SCHMIDT- 211 pps- given a map of neighbourhood where they had all gone to school- with all the street names replaced with numbers and they were asked to remember as many of them as possible . other details were collected like how many times they have moved house, how often they visited that neighbourhood etc. The amount of retroactive interference was assessed by the number of times the pss had moved to other neighbourhood - found there was a positive association between the number of times pps had moved house outside that particular neighbourhood and number of street names forgotten
BADDELY AND HITCH- got pps who had played a lot of rugby games to remember as many of the teams they had played against as possible- interfence theory was tested by the amount of of games played and how this affected recall, whilst trace decay theory was tested by the amount of time that had passed between each game played and how this affected recall. the findings were that forgetting was due more to the number of games played rather than time passed between games- supporting inference theory rather than decay theory.
EVALUATION OF INTERFERENCE THEORY
only really explains forgetting when 2 sets of info are similar- which may not happen very often and so interference can't explain forgetting in a lot of real life settings.
research into interference tends to use lab experiments based around artificial texts, like learning lists of word pairs - and so can be accused of lacking ecological validity.
dont clearly identity the cognitive processes involved
Interference theory cannot explain all examples of forgetting- as there Is more research support for cue dependent forgetting and other explanations of forgetting also exist
CUE DEPENDENT FORGETTING = A type of forgetting based upon a failure to retrieve the prompts that trigger recall.
Tulving- ENCODING SPECIFITY PRINCIPLE= where recall is hindered if the context of recall is different to that at coding
WHAT MAKES A RETRIEVAL CUE MORE EFFECTIVE?
fewer number of items associated with it
how deep the processing of the cue was
how well the cue fits the information associated with it
WHAT ARE THE 2 MAIN FORMS OF CUE DEPENDENT FORGETTING?
CONTEXT - DEPDENDENT FAILURE= where recall occurs in a different external setting to coding-.
RESRACH TO SUPPORT
Abernethy- found after learning material , pss recalled it less well when tested in an unfamilliar room by an unfamilliar teacher than pps who were tested by a familiar teacher in a familiar room
Godden and Baddely- Got divers to learn material either on dry land or while underwater- found that recalling words underwater when material was learnt underwater scored better than if the contexts were different to eachother.
STATE- DEPENDENT FAILURE= When recall occurs In a different internal setting to coding
RESEARCH TO SUPPORT
Overton- Got pps to learn material when either drunk or sober and found that pps who leanred info drunk were better at recalling it drunk rather than sober-
Darley- Found that pps who were hid money when they were on drugs were better at finding the money when they were on drugs again comapred to when they were not high
HOW ARE RETRIEVAL FAILURES TESTED?
by giving pps lists of items to learn and then measuring recall after category headings of items on the lists are given or not
Tulving- pps who weren't given the headings as cues remembered fewer words than pps given the headings as cues
EVALUATION
Many studies= lab based- not like everyday memory tasks, like ones based on procedural memory.
Godden and Baddeley's findings only occured when divers had to free recall items learned not when asked whether items were on the list or not- so shows cue dependency cant explain all types of forgetting .
many psychologists see the cue dpendent forgetting as the main reason for forgetting in LTM- due to the amount of research evidence supporting importance of cues and how they trigger memory