interference

• Define proactive and retroactive interference

  • Proactive
  • Old remembered
  • Retroactive
  • New remembered
• Describe muller and pilzecker’s study

  • investigated retroactive interference
  • Gave pps list of nonsense syllables to learn for 6 mins
  • Retention period, after which the participants were asked to recall the lists
  • Findings- performance was less good if during retention period they were asked to describe 3 paintings
  • shows that the later task (describing pictures) interfered with what had been previously learned
• Describe Underwoods findings

  • Discovered proactive inteference can have effect on memory
  • Analysed number of studies where pps had to recall word lists
  • Didn't remember new words in the list as well as the words they learned earlier on
  • If pps memorised 10/more lists, after 24 hrs only remembered 20% of what they learned. If only learned one list, recall was over 70%
• Describe the investigation for interference by Baddeley and Hitch

  • Investigated interference effects in every day setting
  • Rugby players recalling names of teams they played over a season
  • If interference is correct, players who were sick and missed some games would recall the most names, and this is what Baddeley and Hitch found
• Evaluation of interference?

  • 😊supporting evidence from studies- baddeley and Hitch, muller and pilzecker. High internal and ecological validity
  • ☹️only explains some situations of forgetting and other theories are needed for complete explanation. Only explains why we forget memories which are similar
  • ☹️research is artificial- stimuli in lab given isn’t like things you have to memorise in every day settings, eg shopping lists, and low EV
  • ☹️other explanations of forgetting- retrieval failure, may be more generalised to situations where mems aren’t similar