Forgetting Interference

Question 1

Why does forgetting occur

Answer 1

we cant get access to memories even though they are available

Question 2

Difference between proactive and retroactive

Answer 2

proactive is past info interferes with new
retro is new interferes with old

Question 3

Explain McGeoch and McDonalds procedure

Answer 3

PPTS were asked to recall a bunch of words. They found out that the synonyms (most similar words) produced the worst recall. When the ppts were given different data e.g. 3 digit numbers the mean recall increased

Question 4

What are advantages for forgetting interference

Answer 4

Lab study evidence e.g. McGeoch + McDonald
Real life studies support

Question 5

What is a disadvantage for forgetting interference

Answer 5

Studies/Research used artificial materials which can lack ecological validity -> may not be reliable / replicable
e.g. In McGeoch McDonald experiment

Question 6

What did Underwood do?

Answer 6

PPTS were asked to learn a list of words
After a delay they were asked to learn a new list of words
They found out that ppts who learnt the old words had worse recall for learning the later (newer) lists. This showed a high degree of proactive interference

Question 7

retroactive AO1 (Müller & Pilzecker)

Answer 7

• Muller and Pilzecker - : They were asked to learn a list of nonsense syllables (e.g., “XAB
  One group learned the list and then was immediately given a second list to learn.
  Another group learned the list but had a delay (about 6 minutes) before learning the second list.
  Findings:
  The group that learned the second list immediately performed worse at recalling the first list.

Question 8

proactive AO1 (Muller)

Answer 8

he would get a list of some random syllables and test it to people to see how well they remember these syllables after a certain time

findings: participants who had to learn multiple lists had worse recall for later lists, indicating a high degree of proactive interference

Question 9

ao3 retroactive

Answer 9

supporting research Müller & Pilzecker
lab studies = high controlled variables
Ignores individual differences

Artificial tasks
They used nonsense syllables, which don’t reflect everyday memory use.
Real-life memories are meaningful, emotional, and complex.
This reduces ecological validity of the findings.
It’s harder to generalise results to real-world forgetting.
So the study may oversimplify how memory works in prac