retroactive

• Coding new information disrupts old information
• Schmidt et al. - remembering the street names of a childhood neighbourhood
• aim - to asses influence retroactive interference has over remembering names of childhood streets
• procedure:

  • 211 ps were given a map of the Molenberg neighbourhood with all 48 street names replaced by numbers
  • asked to remember as many as possible
  • other relevant housing info was collected via questionare (eg if theyd moved, how often they visited)
  • the amount of retroactive intereference was measured by if theyd moved and how many times
• 25% of ps had never moved, 1 ps had moved 40 times
• ps:

  700 names picked out from database of 1700 from a dutch elementary school.

  211 responded and were used

  ranging from 11-79 years
• findings:

  positive association between number of times moved away and number of places forgotten
• conclusion:

  retroactive interference can explain real-life situations

  new patterns of information interfere with old ones
• baddely and hitch:

  the more games they watched, the less they remembered the previous ones.

  they remembered less who they had played against