forgetting

• what are the two explanations for forgetting

  Interference

  retrieval failure

  
  

  decay (kinda???)
• define interference

  Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
• what are the two types of interference


  proactive and retroactive
• what is proactive interference


  when old memories interfere with new memories

  
  

  such as you say your old phone number instead of your new one
• what is retroactive interference


  when new memories interfere with old memories

  
  

  such as your new house is number 10 and you cant remember what house number your old house was
• what seems to increase effects of interference

  the similarity effect
• who studies the similarity effect/ retroactive intf


  John McGeoch and William McDonald studies retroactive interferrence
• procedure of McGeoch and McDonalds study into retroactive and similarity effect


  -they studied retroactive intf by changing the similarities between two sets of words that had to be recalled

  
  

  1)Participants learnt the first list of words until they could recall it with 100% accuracy

  2)then they learned a second list depending on the group they were in- 6 groups

  3) after learning the second list they were asked to recall the 1st
• findings and conclusion of McGeoh and McDonalds study


  Findings: (of just 3 groups)

  recall of list a for synonyms: 12%

  for nonsense sylables: 26%

  for numbers: 37%

  
  

  conclusion:

  participants performance depended on the nature of the second task

  the most similar material, the synonyms, produced the worst recall which shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar
• positive eval of McGeoh and McDonalds study


  it was a lab study

  - it has good control of extrenuous variables

  - researchers can be confident that the results are due to interferrence and not extenuous variables
• negative evaluluation of McGeoh and McDonalds study


  it lacks ecological validity

  for example:

  the time between learning and recall is short term

  eg a typical lab study takes 10-20 mins

  - however, this is different from everyday life because we often learn something and then recall it a long time later eg a student revising and then needing to recall for a test weeks later

  
  

  -therefore, because lab studies maximise the possibility of interferrence occuring they may exagerate its importance as a cause of forgetting and may not be particularly useful to explain the nature of forgetting in the real world

  
  

  however, real life studies have been done
• who conducted a real life study into forgetting

  Baddeley and hitch investigated retroactive recall in a realistic setting
• how did baddeley and hitch investigate retroactive recall


  they asked rugby players to remember the names of the teams they played against so far in the season game by game

  
  

  some players had missed games so their last game could have been weeks ago
• findings of baddeley and hitches investigation to retroactive recall


  they found that accurate recall did not depend on how long ago the matches were played but on the number of games they had played in the meantime

  (new info (games in the meantime) interferring with old info (names of teams earlier in season))

  
  

  this suggests that interference caused by the number of matches played was a better explanation of the decay explanation
• what is the decay explanation


  forgetting occurs due to the automatic decay of memory

  
  

  Short-term memory can only keep information for a given period (usually between 15 and 30 seconds). If such information is not rehearsed, then such information decays and is no longer able to be remembered.
• what is a limitation of the interference theory


  (aswell as any eval points of the studies above)

  
  

  special conditions are required for forgetting to take place - that is that memories are quite similar

  this doesnt happen often in everyday life so interference is not considered a very important explanation of forgetting

  - this means that other explanations of forgetting are required to provide a complete explanation of forgetting
• what is retrieval failure


  a form of forgetting which occurs when we dont have the necessary cues to access the memory

  
  

  the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
• what is the encoding specificity principle


  the idea that memory is most effective if info present at time of encoding is also available at the time of retrieval

  
  

  the cue does not have to be exactly right but the closer the cue is to the original item or more meaningful, the more useful it will be
• who came up with the encoding specificity principle


  tulving
• define a cue


  A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory
• what are the types of cues


  meaningful link

  context

  state
• define meaningful link


  information which has specific meaning to the memory trying to be recalled
• define context dependant cues


  external cues which are encoded at the time of learning (eg the environment/smells)
• define state dependant cues


  internal cues that are encoded at the time of learning (such as emotional state of degree of drunkness)
• who investigated meaningful links


  tulving and pearlstone
• how did tulving and pearlstone investigate meaningful links and their effect on recall


  participants has to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories

  
  

  there were 2 different recall conditions

  A: free recall

  B: cued recall, given the categories
• results of tulving and pearlstones investigation on meaningful links and their effect on recall


  condition A (free recall): participants recalled 40% of the words on avg

  
  

  condition B (cued recall): participants recalled 60% of the words on avg
• conclusion of tulving and pearlstones investigation on meaningful links and their effect on recall


  this meaningful link can act as a trigger to help access a memory

  
  

  this is evidence of cues that have been explicitly or implicitly encoded at the same time of learning and have a meaningful link to the learning material
• who researched context dependant forgetting


  godden and baddeley OR abernathy
• how did godden and baddeley investigate context dependant forgetting


  divers learnt a list of words either underwater or on land and then recalled the words either underwater or on land
• what were the conditions of godden and baddeleys investigation


  4 conditions:

  Matched:

  - recall and learning on land

  - recall and learning underwater

  
  

  Unmatched:

  -recall on land, learning underwater

  -recall underwater, learning on land
• findings of godden and baddeleys investigation into context dependant forgetting


  where the environmental context of learning and recall were matched accurate recall was 40% higher than non-matched conditions because the external cues were different from the ones at recall which led to retrieval failure
• who investigated state dependant forgetting


  carter and cassaday OR goodwin
• how did carter and cassaday investigate state dependant forgetting


  participants were given antihistamine drugs which made them slightly drowsy

  - this creates an internal psysiological state which is different from the normal state of being

  
  

  they were then asked to learn a list of words in different conditions
• what were the conditions of carter and cassadays investigation


  4 conditions:

  Matched:

  -learning and recall were drugged

  -learning and recall were normal

  
  

  Unmatched:

  -learning was drugged and recall was normal

  -learning was normal and recall was drugged
• what did carter and cassaday find in their investigation into state dependant forgetting


  where there was a mismatch between the internal state at kearning and recall (un unmatched condition) performance was significantly worse

  
  

  therefore, when cues are absent (because different states encode different cues) there is more forgetting
• positive evaluation for retrieval failure


  has real life application

  exams:

  - could be used to improve recall in places like exams

  - abernathys research suggests that if you revise in the room where you sit your exams, you will get context cues and recall better

  the cognitive interview/eyewitness testimony

  - the cognitive interview uses retrival cues to improve memory by encouraging the witness to mentally recreate both the physical and psychological environment of the incident

  -this technique has been found to improve recall of correct info by 34%

  
  

  can explain interference as a source of forgetting

  - tulving showed that retrieval failure is due to an abscence of cues

  - recalling lists of words freely of cued

  -the more lists a person had to remember the worse their free recall was due to retroactive interferrence BUT

  -when participants were given categories, they remembered 70% of words regardless of how many lists they were given

  - this shows that info is available but cannot be retrieved which shows that retrieval failure is a more important explanation than interference
• negative evaluation of retrieval failure


  cues may not always lead to successful recall

  - information we learn in everyday life is often more complex than just a list of words like in the experiments and requires more than just a cue to trigger it

  - this has been called the outshining hypothesis

  - so cues can explain some simple instances of forgetting but not everything

  
  

  the 'myth of the encoding retrieval match'

  -baddeley points out that the encoding specificity principle is impossible to test because it is circular in the sense that:

  -if a memory is triggered by a cue then the cue must have been encoded in memory and if a memory is not triggered by a cue then it has not been encoded

  -however it is impossible to test for something that hasn't been encoded so this cannot be proved

  - so according to this criticism the cues do not cause retrival they are just associated with retrival
• what is the outshinning hyphothesis


  a cues effectiveness is reduced by the prescence of better cues

  
  

  an item which you try to remember eg a quote is such a strong memory cue to itself that any effects of contextual information cues are wiped out