Explanations for forgetting

• Interference theory 


  Interference refers to when two pieces of information become confused in memory. This results in one or both pieces of the information either being distorted or forgotten. Interference is more likely to occur when the two pieces of information are similar. Interference is less likely to occur, however, when there is a gap between the instances of learning similar pieces of information.
• Proactive interference


  When old information interferes with new information and thus affects the recall of recently learned information.
• Example of proactive interference:


  having trouble recalling your new phone number because you keep recalling digits of your old phone number.