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Evaluation into explanations of forgetting - Coggle Diagram
Evaluation into explanations of forgetting
Postman (1960)
Found evidence to support the validity of retroactive interference theory. He used a lab experiment. The results found that the recall of the control group was more accurate than that of the experimental group (where participants had to learn two lists instead of one)
This suggests that learning items in the second list interfered with participant's ability to recall the list
Baddeley (1990)
Stated that the tasks given to subjects are too close to each other and, in real life, these kinds of events are more spaced out. So this research may lack validity as the tasks undertaken in the study were not true to everyday life
Lacks external validity and mundane realism
McGeoch and McDonald
Asked participants to recall lists of words. When participants recalled the list of words, they found that the groups who had similar lists had worst recall
This is therefore an example of retroactive interference (where new information interferes with old) and therefore support the validity
Reductionism
This shows that having a greater WM span means that some individuals have more resources to consciously control processing which reduces the effects of proactive interference
Kane and Engle found that individuals with greater Working Memory span were less susceptible to proactive interference
Therefore, we should take more holistic approach at explaining forgetting by focusing on the different counterparts of the human mind
One disadvantage of the interference theory of forgetting is it is quite reductionist; it breaks down theories of forgetting into two simplistic components: retroactive and proactive
Baddeley and Hitch
They found that the amount of time had no effect on the accuracy of recall, however, the amount of games played did
The researchers suggested that this was due to interference between the old names and the new hence they could not recall the previous knowledge so well
They measured how well they could recall the names of teams they had played against as well as how long ago they played against them
Therefore this adds further support to retroactive interference theory
They compared rugby players who had played more games to those who had played less due to injury
Supports the idea that interference has a stronger affect on memory than the passage of time
Conducted a study on rugby players
Practical implications
It can be used in education to improve learning and teaching
For example, teachers should design lessons where information which is similar is not learned near the same point as they may interfere with each other