Explanations for forgetting

Explanations for forgetting

1. Interference

   • Retroactive interference - new interferes with old
     • Muller and Pilzecker
       • Recall was less good if there was an intervening task (describing paintings)
   • Proactive interference - old interferes with new
     • Underwood - analysed many studies the more lists learned the lower % of recall
     • McGeoch and McDonald - learn list of words and lists of synonyms
     • Baddeley and Hitch - rugby players who played fewer games had better recall of teams played against (less interference)
   • Evaluation
     • Artificial research
       • Words and nonsense syllables and low motivation (doesn't represent everyday memory)
     • Only explains some situations of forgetting where two sets of stimuli are quite similar
     • Accessible not available
       • Suggested by spontaneous recovery of recognition memory after intereference
     • Real world application
       • Competing advertisements reduce their effect because of interference better to show three in one day
     • individual differences
       • People with greater working memory spa less susceptible to proactive interference

2. Retrieval failure

   • Encoding specificity principle
     • Material present at encoding is present at retrieval
   • Tulving and Thomson
     • Category and word learned
       • Free recall was 40% cued recall was 60%
   • Some cues are not meaningly linked at encoding but also act as cues
   • Context dependent forgetting
     • Godden and Baddeley recall was best when initial context (land or water) matched recall environment
   • State dependent forgetting
     • Godwin et al recall best when initial state (drunk or sober) matched state at recall
   • Evaluation
     • Research support
       • Tulving and Pearlstone (lab experiment
       • Abernathy (field experiment)
     • Real world application
       • to revising and the cognitive interview
     • Retrieval cues don't always work
       • Not useful when learning meaningful material
     • encoding specificity is circular
       • it is not a casual relationship and cannot be tested
     • Retrieval failure can explain interference effects
       • so is the more important explanation for forgetting