Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference

Question 1

What is proactive interference

Answer 1

Old information blocks the learning of new information , meaning new memories can’t be encoded and retrieved

Question 2

What causes interference ?

Answer 2

Time between learning- your less likely to confuse a password you changed years ago with your new one than if you changed yesterday

Similarity , new information and old information are very similar

Question 3

What are some ways to reduce the affects of interference

Answer 3

Spacing - spread learning over time rather than cramming

Review - regularly revisit both old and new information

Question 4

What study supports interference ?

Answer 4

Baddeley and hitch (1977) asked rugby players to recall the name of teams they played against during the season , players who played the most (had no injuries) had the most interference because they had more names to reacall. This increases external validity of the theory .

Question 5

What is retroactive interference

Answer 5

When new information learned makes it harder to recall information stored in your long term memory.

Question 6

What’s a disadvantage of interference

Answer 6

It doesn’t account for things like attention which can influence forgetting

Question 7

What’s another study supporting interference

Answer 7

McGeoch and McDonald- effects of similarity:
Participants were asked to learn a list of words to 100% accuracy.Then they were given a new list to learn. The new material varied in the degree to which it was similar to the old:
Group 1: synonyms - words had same meanings as the originals.
Group 2:unrelated - words unrelated to the original ones.
(There is more groups but i cba)

Group 1 produced the worst recall, group 2 produced the best recall.
This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

Question 8

Why does interference get worse when memories are more similar ?

Answer 8

In PI previously stored information makes new information more difficult to store.In RI new information overwrites previous memories which are similar.