explanations for forgetting: interference

• what is proactive interference?

  older memories interfere/disrupt recall of new memories. degree of forgetting is easier when memories r similar
• what is retroactive interference?

  New memories interfere with older memories. degree of forgetting is easier when memories r similar
• interference?

  forgetting because 1 memory blocks another causing 1 or both memories to be distorted or forgotten
• what is the study for interference ?

  Mcgeoch and Mcdonald made participants remember a list of 10 words until they had 100% accuracy. Then they had to learn a new list. There were 6 groups of what list to learnThose who had the synonyms list had the worst recall with the original list. This meant interference was strongest when memories are similar.
• what real world application is there for interference ?

  Baddley and Hitch made rugby players recall the team names they had played against. The number of intervening games varied(some missed due to injuries)The players that played the most games had the poorest recall. This shows interference does cause forgetting which increases the validity of the study
• what is a limitation for interference ?

  Interference may cause forgetting but it is rare. It is said that interference happens when two memories are similar. It may happen occasionally but not oftenThis shows that forgetting is explained better by other theories
• how can interference be overcome ?

  It may be overcome by using cues. Tulving and Psotka gave participants a list of words and recall was about 70% however it became progressively worse when they had to learn additional lists. When participants were given a cued recall, the recall rose back to 70%.This shows that it caused a temporary loss of access to material in the LTM.
• how does drug studies support interference ?

  Coenen and Luijtelaar made participants learn a  list of words and later recall the words. Those who learned the words on th drug diazepam made recall worse but those who took it before learning their recall was better.This shows the drug improved recall as the drug prevented new info.This shows forgetting does cause interference.REDUCE THE INTERFERENCE REDUCE THE FORGETTING.