Forgetting- Interference
- Created by: Em
- Created on: 18-04-16 18:52
View mindmap
- Interference
- Description
- Interference theory states that forgetting can occur because memories interfere and disrupt one another
- This idea suggests that information in LTM may become confused or combined with other information during encoding
- Proactive interference- when we cannot learn new information because older information has already been learnt
- Retroactive- when you forget previously learnt information due to learning new information
- Interference is more likely when the memories are similar
- e.g if you change your telephone number, the old number can interfere with the new number. This may result in you forgetting the new number
- Evaluation
- The majority of research that has been done on interference has been conducted in a lab
- Lacks ecological validity and findings cannot be applied to everyday forgetting as the tasks are usually not common
- Investigating interference is difficult to test in 'real life' as getting informed consent from participants would mean them knowing about the experiment so demand characteristics
- Chandler (1989) stated that students who study similar subjects at the same time often experience interference- supports the theory
- Baddeley (1990) states that the tasks given to subjects are too close to each other and, in real life; these kinds of events are more spaced out.
- McGeoch and McDonald (1931) found that the more similar the new information was to the old memory, the lower recall became.
- This provides clear evidence for retroactive interference as similar information competes for meaningful memory space with the old memory
- The majority of research that has been done on interference has been conducted in a lab
- Description
Comments
No comments have yet been made