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
