Interference

• Interference occurs when what?

  Two sets of information become confused in memory and there is competition in the retrieval between the old and new knowledge
• Interference between 2 sets of information is more likely if what?

  They are similar and learned within a short period of time to one another.
• Proactive interference


  Works forwards in time, occurring when information stored previously interferes with an attempt to recall something new. For example, the memory of an old phone number disrupts attempts to recall a new phone number.
• Retroactive interference


  Works backwards in time, occurring when new information disrupts the recall of information stored previously. For example, the memory of your new car registration numbers prevents you remembering your old car reg.
• McGeogh and Mcdonald


  - lab experiment- found evidence to support the affect that similarity of materials has on interference.- PP's learned a list of 10 adjectives (List A)- They were then given an interval of ten minutes- Had to learn a second list of words (List B) and recall list A.- If list B was a list of words which were similar to list A, then recall accuracy of list A decreased to 12%- However, if list B was numbers recall accuracy of list A improved to 26%-These findings support that interference is more likely when the two sets of information are similar
• Baddeley and Hitch


  - Natural experiment

  - Rugby players asked to recall all the teams they had played

  - Those that played fewer games (due to injury) recalled the most.

  - Support for retroactive interference - these players had less information to affect the new information.
• Tulving and Psotka


  - Showed how interference can be overcome

  - 4 lists of 24 words to recall

  - made up of categories - PPs not told this

  - Recall of each list decreased each time

  - But if a cue is given (PPs given category names), recall increases
• What is the difference between PROACTIVE and RETROACTIVE interference?

  Proactive -when OLD memories affect NEW memories

  Retroactive - when NEW memories affect OLD memories
• Negative - Interference is not a true explanation of 'forgetting'


  - Some psychologists question if interference is in fact an adequate explanation of forgetting at all. This is because the effects are temporary and the information has not disappeared from LTM entirely, but is simply confused with existing information in LTM.
• Real world practical application

  A strength of research into interference as an explanation of forgetting is that it has practical applications. Research has shown that the effects of interference are greater when the two sets of material are similar and are both learned within a short period of time.

  This understanding has been used by advertisers who now enhance their adverting campaigns on TV by running them multiple times across a single day. This is more effective than spreading adverts out over multiple days where they might be confused with adverts of similar companies, which increases the chance of interference occurring and their adverts forgotten. This illustrates the beneficial applications of research into interference theory on the economy.
• Retrieval failure - Due to the absence of cues