Explanations of Forgetting; Interference Evaluation

Explanations of Forgetting; Interference Evaluation

1. Real Life Application

   • Influenced how advertisers market their products
   • Danaher
     • Found recall & recognition of advertisers message was impaired when ppts exposed to adverts marketing two similar products
   • Problem for advertisers considering the amount of money they spend only to have their advert diluted by interference
   • One strategy is running multiple exposures to an advert on one day rather then spreading them out over a week
     • Results in reduced interference from competitors advertisements
   • Has implications on the economy as individuals will remember the product to purchase it

2. Too Simplistic

   • Critics have questioned whether interference effects actually cause a memory to disappear
   • Tulving & Psotka
     • Demonstrated that apparent interference effects are actually due to the absence of cues
   • The more word lists learned, the more forgetting occurred, apparently due to retroactive interference
   • When ppts given cues the effects of interference disappeared
     • Ppts remembered about 70% of the words regardless of how many lists they'd been given
   • Shows that the info is there but cannot be retrieved - illustrates retrieval failure is a more important explanation of forgetting than interference

3. Methodology

   • Interference demonstrated in lab experiments (e.g. McGeoch & McDonald)
   • Allows control of extraneous variables which allows causal relationships to be established
   • Stimulus material often includes artificial tasks (word lists) so does not reflect everyday life
   • Words have little relevance to ppts so more likely to illicit DCs or ppts may have less motivation to remember lists
   • May allow interference effects to appear stronger - research low in ecological validity and may not tell us about forgetting in everyday life