Baddeley & Hitch - Retroactive interference

Cards (8)

  • 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