Interference

• What is inference?

  One memory disturbs the ability to recall another which results in forgetting or distorting memory. It is more likely to happen in cases where the memories are similar
• What is proactive inference?

  Old memories proactively interferes with the new one and disrupts the recall for newer memories e.g. calling a new boyfriend an exs name
• What is retroactive inference?

  New memories retroactively interfere with old ones e.g. calling an old friend a new friend’s name
• What was McGeoch and McDonald’s study?

  They wanted to investigate whether completing 2 similar tasks had any effect on the amount of information recalled. Participants were told to learn a list of words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy and then told to learn a list of similar words E.g. list of synonyms or antonyms. The researchers then recalled how many words participants could remember from the original list and found that a more similar list means more interference and so less accurate recalling.
• What may be some ethical implications of interference?

  issues for medical professionals if they forget as it could lead to medical malpractice, more interventions put in place to help remembering
• What are strengths of the interference theory?

  Application, support from drug studies
• What are weaknesses of the interference theory?


  Validity issues, can be overcome using cues
• What is some real-life application of interference?

  Baddeley and Hitch asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they played against during rugby season and found that players that played to most games had the poorest recall
• What is the evidence that interference can be overcome using cues?

  Tulving’s and Psotka gave participants a list of words that was organised into categories (they didn’t know what the categories were). Recall was around 70% for the first list and gradually decreased as more were added (proactive interference). At the end, the participants were given the names of each category and recall rose again to around 70%
• What drug studies support the interference theory?

  Coenen and Luijtelaar did a study known as retrograde facilitation. Participants were asked to learn a list of words under the influence of diazapam- recall a week later was poor compared to the placebo control group. When the list was recalled by another group who took the drug before recalling they had the best accuracy. John Wixted suggested this is due to he drug preventing new information reaching the part of the brain involved in processing memories so it cannot interfere retroactively
• What are the validity issues with the interference theory?

  Most of the studies are lab-based so use artificial materials and unrealistic procedures which reduces the ecological validity of the study. However, Baddeley and Hitch used a real-life study if rugby players to have real-life application and evidence.