forgetting

• what's an inference

  forgetting because one memory has disrupted another causing one or both to be forgotten
• how is forgetting in the LTM often explained

  interference theory and retrieval failure
• whats interference

  where forgetting occurs as a result of similar memories interfering with and disrupting each other
• why may we forget permanent memories stored in our LTM

  as we can't get access to them
• what are the two types of interference

  proactive and retroactive
• what is proactive interference

  when old memories interfere with newer ones
• whats retroactive interference

  when new memories interfere with old ones
• whats an example of proactive interference

  when you remember content from your old exams instead of the new content (GCSE and ALEVEL)
• whats an example of retroactive interference

  remembering the most recent holiday you went on instead of on you went on as a child
• what happens when the memories are similar

  there is more chance of forgetting memories when they are similar
• a strength of interference theory

  there supporting research evidence carried out by mcgough and McDonald and its shown that in both cases the more similar the memories the worse the interference
• mcgough and McDonalds procedure

  • retroactive interference was researched by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials
  • participants had to learn a new list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy
  • they then learned a new list with varying degree of similarity depending of their group
• mcgough and McDonald findings

  • when the participants then recalled the original list of words their performance depended on the nature of the second list
  • as the most similar material produced the worst recall
  • this shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar
• mcgough and McDonald conclusion

  it indicates that more similar the later material the greater interference and the higher level of forgetting
• limitation of the interference theory

  lacks ecological validity -

  • mcgough and McDonalds evidence was provided from a lab based experiment with high levels of control
  • this means the task doesn't represent memory in everyday life
  • therefore making it difficult to generalise the role of interference in forgetting to other real life situations
• retrieval failure

  It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.

  The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
• whats a cue and why are they important in retrieval failure

  • a 'trigger' of information that allows us to access our memory
  • cues can be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the same time as learning
• what type of cues are there

  external/ context-dependent

  internal/ state-dependent
• encoding specificity principle (ESP)

  • our memory is better when there is a match between contexts present at encoding and retrieval
  • therefore if a cue is to help us recall information it must be present when we are learning the material and when we are recalling it
  • so if cues are present at encoding differ from those at retrieval there will be some forgetting
• what is context-dependent forgetting

  occurs when the external contexts at encoding and retrieval don't match

  this is due to the relevant environmental cues during learning being absent during recall
• whats state-dependent forgetting

  this us where relevant psychological cues are present at encoding are later absent during retrieval
• whats an example of state-dependent forgetting

  people who are in a happy mood during learning were better able to recall the information when they were again in a happy mood as opposed to when they attempted recall in a sad mood
• strength of retrial failure

  retrieval cues have real life applications -

  people often go to another room to get an item but forget what they wanted but them remember again when they go into the original room

  when we have trouble remembering something it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you learnt it first
• limitation of retrial failure

  context effects are actually not very strong -

  badly argues that context effects aren't very strong especially nt in everyday life, different contexts have to be different before an effect is seen