Explanations for forgetting

• Interference theory


  The theory that people forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember
• Proactive interference


  The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

  
  

  PROactive - affects new information

  
• Retroactive interference


  The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

  
  

  RETROactive - affects old information

  
• McGeoch and McDonald (1931)


  - Participants had to learn a list of words until they could recall with 100% accuracy.

  - They then learned a new list.

  - The recall of the original list depended on the nature of the 2nd.

  - Synonyms produce the worst recall.

  - This shows that interference is strongest when memories are similar.
• Strengths of interference theory

  Real-world interference

  - Baddeley and Hitch (1977) Rugby players asked to recall the names of teams they remember.

  - Time not so much a factor in recall but recall was reduced by interference

  
  

  Support from drug studies

  - Coenen and Luijelaar (1997)

  - Gave participants a list of words and recalled them.

  - Learning a list under the drug diazepam, recall one week later was poor, compared to a control placebo group.

  - When list was learnt before drug, recall was better than placebo.

  
• Retrieval failure


  The inability to recall long-term memories because of inadequate or missing retrieval cues

  
• Cues


  A stimulus that has a particular significance to the perceiver (e.g., a sight or a sound that has special relevance to the person who saw or heard it).
• Encoding specificity principle


  The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.
• Mnemonic techniques


  A strategy for aiding memory, often by using imaginary or enhancing the emotional meaning of what needs to be learned.

  
• Context-dependent forgetting


  Failure to retrieve information from LTM due to the absence of appropriate contextual cues
• State-dependent forgetting


  Forgetting related to changes in context associated with internal cues of physical and mental state.
• Godden and Baddeley (1975) Context-dependent forgetting


  - Researches using 18 divers, 36 unrelated words.

  - 4 conditions to learn and recall: DD, DW, WW, WD.

  - Easier to recall in same place.

  
• Carter and Cassaday (1998) State-dependent forgetting


  Study on state-dependent forgetting: state cues were drowsiness due to antihistamine medication v no medication while learning and recalling

  
• Strengths of retrieval failure

  Real-world application

  - Can help overcome some forgetting in everyday situations.

  - Reminds us of strategies we use in the real-world to improve our recall.

  
  

  Research support

  - Godden and Baddeley

  - Carter and Cassaday
• Limitations of retrieval failure

  Recall verse recognition

  - Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall.

  - When recognition was tested, there was no context-dependent effect, performance was the same in all 4 conditions.