Forgetting: Interference

• Interference theory


  When one memory disrupts or blocks another causing one or both memories to become distorted or forgotten
• 2 types of interference

  Retroactive

  Proactive
• Retroactive

  New disrupts old - old is forgotten
• Proactive

  old disrupts new - new is forgotten
• Similarity


  the more similar the information, the greater the likelihood of interference effects occurring - response competition
• Studies: word lists

  • participants given successively more word lists to recall - each after 24 hours
  • the more lists to learn, the harder it becomes - supports proactive interference - old information is making new information difficult to recall
• Studies: Dutch street names

  • asked to recall names of local street names - number of times they had moved since was also recorded
  • found that learning new street names have interfered with the memory of old street names - retroactive interference
• Eval: research support

  + Lots of research support for both retroactive and proactive
• Eval: lab studies

  -Lots of the research support is from lab studies

  -Artificial task - lack of ecological validity and mundane realism