Interference Forgetting
Interference - Two pieces of information conflict with each other. One memory blocks another.
Proactive Interference -> Old to New - blocks new
This occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer one.
E.g. Your teacher has learned so many names in the past that she has difficulty remembering the name of her current class.
Retroactive Interference -> New to Old - blocks old
This occurs when an newer memory interferes with a older one.
E.g. Your teacher has learned so many new names this year that she has difficulty remembering the names of the students last year.
Evaluation of Interference
Effects of similarity
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Interference is worse when memories are similar.
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McGeoch and McDonald (1931) tested this assumption.
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Changed the amount of similarity between 2 sets of materials. Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they had 100% accuracy (LTM). They then had to learn another set of words in the same way.
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6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of lists.
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Group 1 = synonyms (words with the same meaning as the original)
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Group 2 = antonyms (words with the opposite meanings to original)
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Group 3 = words unrelated to original
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Group 4 = nonsense syllables
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Group 5 = 3 digit numbers
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Group 6 = no new list
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Findings – the group with the most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall – suggests that interference is strong when there is high similarity between the two pieces of information that are being processed
Artificial materials
Interference is likely to occur in a lab experiment due to the artificial materials used to test this process. Word lists are commonly used in interference research – they are artificial and cause interference due to the fact that participants are given lists to simply learn – there is little semantic value and therefore are not encoded properly into the LTM. So it causes interference from the start – the studies do not represent real life, as we have to remember many different things on a day to day basis, e.g. people’s faces, phone numbers, ingredients to our favourite foods. Therefore the research into interference has limited ecological validity and real life application.