Explanations of forgetting

what are interference theories?

these suggest that forgetting Is caused by competing memories due to existing memories interfering with a new memory, or new info interfering with old, while they are similar therefore it cant be retrieved as insufficient cues trigger memories

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list the possible explanations of forgetting (just the names)

-proactive interference,
-retroactive interference
-retroactive interference
-retrieval failure

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what is proactive interference?

P.R is when old info stored in the LTM interferes with new info as it may be similar ie, learning a new phone number but remembering your old one

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who studied this and what was the study?

Keppel and Underwood, in a lab, they presented PP with trigrams at diff time intervals and PP had to count backwards to stop rehearsal, PP typical remembered trigrams at first regardless of intervals, but due to the similarity in trigrams it-

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-became harder to recall them, showing the existence of P.I

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what us retroactive difference?

when learning new info interferes recalling old info ie now you have learnt your phone number, you find if difficult to recall your old number.

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who's studied this and what was the study?

Baddely and Hitch did a field exp w a sample of rugby players. there was one group, who played in all the seasons, and there was another who played in less due to injuries, there were asked to recall all of teams they had played against. results showed-

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-players whom played more games forgot more team names compared to the group who played less games, concluded; this was the result of R.I

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name the evaluations of this section

+McGeoch and McDonald did an exp and gave PP a list of 10 adjectives, once they learnt this, PP were govern 6 other LISTS to learn which varied to the original, they found recall was worse when list A and B were similar, supporting R.I

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counting w previous card

-theres only explanations of forgetting when the info is similar, limiting RWA for other situations ie when info is different
-lacks ecological validity, research carried in a lab and uses meaningless stimuli (doesn't reflect RL)

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what is retrieval failure due to absence of cues and which psychologists talked about it? (include key terms they found)

when info can't be retrieved due to environmental/mental cues and causes a trigger in memories. Tulving and Thomson found the encoding specificity principle (memory is most effective when when info is retrieved where it was coded.)

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what are the 2 type of retrieval failures due to absence of cues?

Context-dependant failure-> when environmental cues are missing
state-dependant failure-> when emotional state is different to when trying to recall

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who studied context-dependant forgetting and what was the study?

Godden and Baddeley did a field exp where 18 PP(13M 5F) from a uni were in a diving club. they were split into 4 conditions, 1. learning and recalling words on land, 2. learning words on land recalling underwater, 3. learning and recalling-

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-words underwater, 4. learning words underwater and recalling on land. results showed words learnt and recalled in the same environment were recalled better than 2 diff environments, concluding environmental cues improve recall.

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name the evaluations oft his

-godden and baddeley didn't control other variables that could impact it ie time/day/diving location
-broke ethical guidelines, protecting of harm, diver nearly run over during underwater exp

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-PP may have worked out aim of exp and shown demand characteristics or recall may have gradually improved by doing exp 4 times over |(practice effect), or recall may have worsens due to being tired (fatigue effect) [-also gender bias]

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who studied state dependant forgetting and what was the study?

Carter and Cassaday examined PP after they took anti-histamine (hay fever drug that has a drowsy effect). PP had to learn a list of words from a text in 4 conditions; 1. learn and recall words after taking drugs, 2. learn and recall words w/o drugs-

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-3. learn words after taking drugs and recall w/o drugs, 4. learn words w/o drugs and recall after drugs. results showed conditions where recall and learning where the same, memory was improved, when diff, it was poor, so forgetting will occur-

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-when emotional state is not the same of the emotional state when info was coded.

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name the evaluations of this

+r.s Goodwin et al asked M PP to remember lists of words when they were drunk vs sober. PP were able to recall words 24 hrs later in drunk vs sober state (found supporting results)
+different substances, Darley et al researched the-

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-impacts of marijuana on recall. pp were asked to recall where they out their money after saying they left it In a safe place, on the drug they could recall it, but off the drug they couldn't
-determing a cause/effect rs is hard, Nairne said-

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-there was only a correlation between time of coding and cues, not certain if in later retrieval that will still be the case
-nomothetic approach

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Explanations of forgetting

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