Memory- interference

When one piece of information blocks another, causing distortion or forgetting
1. Proactive interference
  1. Older memory interferes with new memory
  2. Your name is Louis. Your teacher had a student in her class last year called Lewis, and she keeps calling you Lewis rather than Louis
2. Retroactive interference
  1. Newer memory interferes with old memory
  2. Your name is Louis. Your teacher had a student in her class last year called Lewis, but since learning your name, she can't remember Lewis' name
Effects of similiarity
1. Interference is worse when memories are similar
2. McGeoch and McDonald
  1. 1931
  2. Participants all learned the same list of words to 100% accuracy
    1. They were then given a new list of words
      1. Group1
        Synonyms
        Most interference
      2. Group 2
        Antonyms
      3. Group 3
        Unrelated words
      4. Group 4
        Nonsense syllables
      5. Group 5
        Three digit numbers
      6. Group 6
        No new list
        Least interferences
      7. The more similar the word (synonyms) the worse the interference
Evaluation
1. Evidence from lab studies
  1. Control over extraneous variables
  2. Increased validity
  3. Too artificial
    1. Word lists have no relevance to participants
    2. Difficult to generalise to everyday life
2. Real life studies
  1. Baddeley, 1977
    1. Rugby players had to recall all of the matches they'd played in a season
      1. Didn't matter if last match was 3 weeks ago, interference depended on number of matches played since
        Best recall if they hadn't played since the last game
3. Time between learning
  1. In real life, the time between learning and recall can actually be quite long, while in lab studies it is very short for practical reasons

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Memory- interference

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	Created by Grace Fawcitt almost 7 years ago