Baddeley & Hitch - Retroactive interference

• There is research support for interference theory
• Interference theory

  A theory that explains forgetting as being caused by interference from other information
• Study by Baddeley and Hitch (1977)


  • Examined rugby union players who had played every match in the season and players who had missed some games due to injury
  • Asked players to recall the names of the teams they had played against earlier in the season
  • Found that players who had played the most games forgot proportionately more games than those who had played fewer games due to injury
• Players who had played the most games

  Forgot proportionately more games than those who had played fewer games due to injury
• Retroactive interference


  The learning of new information (new team names) interfered with the memory of old information (earlier team names)
• Interference research (proactive and retroactive) provides an insight into one type of forgetting, but only explains a specific type of forgetting – memory for similar information
• The results of Baddeley and Hitch demonstrate retroactive interference in rugby union players trying to recall team names from earlier that season
• Interference research is often criticised for being artificial and lacking ecological validity as most of the research is carried out in a laboratory