forgetting interferance theory

forgetting interferance theory

1. types of interferance

   • Retroactive
     • New things we learn cause problems when we try to recall info we learned before
     • E.G. going on holiday then driving on the wrong side of the road at home
     • Nandos- NEW Always- AFFECTS Opens- OLD In- IN Rotherham- RETRO area- ACTIVE
   • Proactive
     • things we already know can cause problems when we try to take in new info
     • E.G giving your old phone number instead of your new one

2. Evaluation

   • STRENGTH
     • P. practical applications E. if you revise spanish and french together interferance is more likley to occour E. you should take a break between similar subjects when revising or do them or sepeate days
     • both Underwood and Postman and Mc geoch and Mc donald did studies on the interferance theory. E. this means that it has supporting research as well as lab studies with similar results. making the info more valid and reliable
     • P. studies done in more real life situations E. Baddley and Hitch got rugby players to remember teams they played and shoed that there was no corrolation between items remembered and time E. gives more validity to lab studies and gives lab studies more ecological validity whilst further proving the IT
   • WEAKNESS
     • P. in real life we would have a larger amount of time betweening learnig lists meaning this lacks ecological validity E. interferance is more likley to occour in the lab study as they have different info straight after eachother . E.G underwood and postman

3. studies

   • Underwood and postman
     • AIM: to see if new learnign interferes with previouslearning
     • METHOD: participents split into 2 groups.
       • GROUP A: asked to list words in pairs (cat-tree, candle- table) they were then asked to learn a second a second list of word pairs (cat-glass, candle- whale)
       • GROUP B: asked to learn the frist list only
     • RESULTS: group Bs recall of the first was more acccurate than that of group A
     • CONCLUSION: new learning will cause people to ro recall previously learned info less accuratley
   • McGeoch and Mc donald
     • AIM: to investigate the effects of similarity on retroactive interference
     • METHOD: participents had to learn a list of words until they could recall it with 100% accuarcy. they then learnt a new list. the participents were split into 6 different groups, each learning a different type of list
       • GROUP 1: synonyms- words with the same meanings as the others
       • GROUP 2: antonyms- words with the opposite meanings to the originals
       • GROUP 3: words unrelated to the originals
       • GROUP 4: nonsense syllables
       • GROUP 5: three digit numbers
       • GROP 6: no new list (control)
     • RESULTS: the performance of the Ps recalling the first list depended on the nature of the 2nd. the most similar (group 1) produced the worst recall
     • CONCLUSION: words that sound the same create the most interferance