interference

• Interference


  Forgetting which occurs because one memory blocks another, causing either one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
• Proactive interference


  Old information disrupts new. Interference works forward in time, when old information already stored interferes with recalling something new.
• + Supporting evidence for proactive interference


  E - Keppel and Underwood: Participants typically remembered the trigrams that were presented first, irrespective of the interval length.

  E - This suggests that proactive interference has occurred.
• Retroactive interference


  New information disrupts old. Interference works backward in time, new information being stored interferes with recall of old information.
• + Supporting evidence for retroactive interference


  E - Baddeley and Hitch: Players were asked to recall the names of the teams they had played against earlier in the season. Players who had played the most games forgot proportionately more games.

  E - This suggests that retroactive interference has occurred.

  L - Therefore, Baddeley and Hitch provide evidence of interference occurring in the real-word, increasing the ecological validity.
• - Lab experiments


  E - Much of the research comes from lab experiments. While lab experiments produce high internal validity, they involve artificial tasks.

  E -There is a greater chance of interference occurring in a lab compared to real life situations due to the stimulus material typically being a list of words.

  L - Therefore, this means that interference isn't applicable to forgetting in everyday life.
• Types of interference

  • Proactive interference
  • Retro-active interference
• Similarity

  Interference is more likely to occur when the two pieces of information are similar due to response competition.
• Time sensitivity

  Interference is less likely to occur when there is a large gap between the instances of learning.
• + Evidence from lab studies


  E - Interference is one of the most consistently demonstrated findings. Most of these studies show that PI and RI are common ways information can be forgotten from the LTM.

  E - Lab experiments have control over variables.

  L - Therefore, this suggests that the results have high validity. However, there is a weakness of lab studies.