general evaluation

• general strengths of forgetting


  -many lab studies been carried out supporting interference as explanation for forgetting

  -positive, real life applications for field of advertising

  > recall & recognition of advertisers message reduced when people exposed to 2 ads from competing brands in same week

  -reliable results
• general criticisms of forgetting


  -most experiments being lab based may mean lacks ecological validity

  -interference only seems to lead to forgetting if 2 memories are similar - can't explain all types of forgetting

  -individual differences may play role in forgetting
• strengths of dependent forgetting

  -many studies show importance of retrieval cues on memory

  -many real life applications
• weaknesses of dependent forgetting

  -retrieval cues are most effective for simple learning

  -issue of cause & effect because the relationship between encoding cues & later retrieval is a correlation than a cause
• strength of having evidence from natural & field experiments

  -high ecological validity

  -findings can be applied to real life
• strength of having supporting evidence from lab experiments

  -high control of extraneous variables

  -infer cause & effect