Interference theory

• AO1:

  Occurs when two pieces of information disrupt each other, resulting in one or both or in some distortion of memory

  • proposed mainly as an explanation for forgetting in LTM
  • once information has reached LTM it more-or-less is permanent.
  • Therefore forgetting occurs due to is not being able to access them though they are available
• Types of interference

  2 types:

  1. Proactive - old memory interferes with new ones
  2. Retroactive - new memory interferes with old ones
• Research

  in both Pi and Ri the interference is worse with the memory are similar as discovered by McGeoch and McDonald (1931)

  Procedure: studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between the two sets of material

  • pp has to learn a list of words till they could recall 100%
  • next had to learn a new list of words
  • 6 groups had to learn different types of new lists

  FOR EXAMPLE:

  Group 1- list of words similar to the original one

  Groups 2: list of words that were opposites that the original one

  Group 3: no second list
• Research

  Findings from Mcgeoch and McDonald 1931

  • when pp had to recall the OG list of words, group 1 had the worse recall
  • This shows that interference is most strongest when memories are similiar