Memory - Explanations for Forgetting

Memory - Explanations for Forgetting

1. Interference Theory - when two sets of information compete in LTM, with one causing the other to be overwritten

   • Retroactive Interference
     • New learning interferes with old learning
     • Degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similar
     • Schmidt et al (2000) asked 211 volunteers to recall street names from their childhood, other data was collected (such as how often they moved)
       • Positive association between how many times they'd moved to how many street names they forgot
   • Proactive Interference
     • Past learning interferes with new learning
     • Degree of forgetting is greater when memories are similar
     • Wickens (1972) gave participants 4 trials of nonsense trigrams, the first three made of letters, the last made of numbers
       • Performance gradually declined in trials 1-3, but recall was almost 100% for the fourth
         • The decline shows old learning affecting new learning
   • Evaluation
     • Many experiments have been carries out and produced the same results, valid conclusion
     • Advertisements of competing brands are hard to recall if both advert were shown at similar times
     • Artificial lab experiments can effect ecological validity
     • Experiments may exaggerate the role of interference

2. Retrieval Failure - when insufficient cues lead to a lack of accessibility

   • Context-Dependent Forgetting
     • External cues of the context of when you learnt or experienced something, also associations with a thing affect how you remember it
     • Godden and Baddeley (1975) completed an experiment where deep sea divers learned 36 words either underwater or on land and were asked to recall in both conditions
       • If the conditions of recall and coding were the same, recall improved
   • State-Dependent Forgetting
     • Internal cues such as psychological and physiological state can affect memory
     • Goodwin et al (1969) got male volunteers to remember a list of words when drunk or sober and after 24 hours, some got drunk and some stayed sober and they were asked to recall the words
       • The same physiological state (being drunk or sober) when coding and recalling reaped better recall
   • Evaluation
     • Lots of support from various types of experiment support the theory
     • Improved recall can be achieved by imagining the room where you first learnt something
     • Some argue that retrieval cues aren't effective in real life as most context isn't different enough to cause an impact
     • Difficult to accurately measure retrieval failure, context may relate to type of memory etc. questions validity