Spies need good memories We’re going to find out who would make the best spy Spy role play first: It aims to show the difficulty of recalling similar information because of the role of interference.

Your objective You are working for Interpol on a mission which should save the lives as you work to stop the global illegal arms trade. Throughout this mission, you will meet with a number of agents and double agents to help you meet contacts and lead legitimate law enforcement agencies to criminals’ safe houses and weapons stores However, the agents only go via code names, and you must learn these, so that when you meet them, you can use the code without referring to notes. This is known as operation ‘bluebird’

The set of code names from ‘bluebird’ You will be given a sheet with information about the agents you will meet The sheet will have their code names written next to their photos of their faces. You will have two minutes to learn these codes, then you must destroy the sheet as these codes are top secret. Use any method to remember the names, but do not write anything down. There must be no record of the codes ‘T’ your operations leader, will give you the sheet. This presentation will tell you when there is one minute left and when to finish

Learn the codes Please begin now

Learn the codes One minute left

Finish learning the codes Destroy the sheet and throw it away Learn the codes Finish learning the codes Destroy the sheet and throw it away

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised You will meet each agent in a random order. Write down their codes in secret (use mini-whiteboard so the codes can be deleted). DO NOT let your neighbour see, she or he maybe a double agent too! You will only have six seconds until you the next agent appears so be quick to write down your answer Put numbers 1 – 7 down the side of the white board. Ok, Pen and boards ready? shield your answers

The mission will start in 6 seconds

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 1) Agent ‘Fernandez’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 2) Agent ‘Kenwynne’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 3) Agent ‘Jackson’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 4) Agent ‘Carlos’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 5) Agent ‘Anand’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 6) Agent ‘Tabasco’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 7) Agent ‘Asuman’ Code?

Now you have met all the agents, check that you got all their code names correct Agent ‘Fernandez’ = Anvil Agent ‘Kenwynne’ = Horse Agent ‘Jackson’ = Giraffe Agent ‘Carlos’ = Magna Agent ‘Anand’ = Sunflower Agent ‘Tabasco’ = Guitar Agent ‘Asuman’ = Viper

Back Story Here is a little more information about what our operations have lead to in Egypt. Watch carefully to understand the difficulties involved and why the mission cannot be compromised. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMVBJKepVTg

Our codes have been compromised! Due to a double agent leaking our information, our codes have been compromised. For the second mission, you’ll have to learn a new set of codes to meet the agents. Again, forget these, or get them wrong and the mission is over. ‘T’ will give you a new set of codes, with a new name called operation ‘stargate’. You will have two minutes to learn the new codes and then you must destroy the sheet. Again timings will be shown on this presentation, with one minute passed indicated.

Learn the codes Please begin now

Learn the codes One minute left

Finish learning the codes Destroy the sheet and throw it away Learn the codes Finish learning the codes Destroy the sheet and throw it away

Now we are ready to meet the agents again Oh no!!!! The mission has been compromised again. Some one from the class has leaked the new codes you have just learnt so we are going to have to revert back to the original codes!!! You will need to remember the original bluebird codes.

The mission will start in 6 seconds

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 1) Agent ‘Kenwynne’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 2) Agent ‘Fernandez’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 3) Agent ‘Anand’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 4) Agent ‘Carlos’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 5) Agent ‘Jackson’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 6) Agent ‘Asuman’ Code?

Now you are set to meet the agents Now you are set to meet the agents. Get the code wrong, and the mission is compromised 7) Agent ‘Tabasco’ Code?

Now you have met all the agents, check that you got all their code names correct Agent ‘Kenwynne’ = horse Agent ‘Fernandez’ = anvil Agent ‘Anand’ = sunflower Agent ‘Carlos’ = magna Agent ‘Jackson’ = giraffe Agent ‘Asuman’ = viper Agent ‘Tabasco’ = guitar

How many of you got all the names correct on the second mission? How many got all the codes correct on both missions?

Quick results Write on your boards how many you got right after the first presentation, then next to it how many you got right on the second presentation (see example below) The teacher will write these on the front whiteboard Now work out mean, medians and modes for each condition After 1 presentation 6 After 2 presentations 4

Discussion Now discuss with your group the results. Did we find a difference or not between the two groups? Why/why not Was it more difficult the second time around? Why/why not How long do you think you will remember these codes for? Why do you think this? Can you think of any flaws to this study?

Questions What was the IV? Whether ps had one or two lists to recall What was the DV? Correct number of codes recalled What was the investigation type used? Laboratory experiment What was the experimental design? Repeated measures design What was the sample used? Opportunity sample What would be a directional hypothesis? (operationalise this) There will be fewer codes correctly recalled after being presented with two different lists, compared with when recalling the codes after a single presentation

Evaluation Complete the table… Positive Negative Criticism 1

Evaluation ex Positive Negative 1 Here are some example – you may have different evaluations ex Positive Negative 1 There was a high level of control over extraneous variables, which means that there is an argument for high internal validity 3 The task lacks mundane realism. This means that it is so far away from the participants day to day life, that it lacks relevance and consequences, so that they may not take the tasks seriously, affecting the results 2 There were no participant variables between conditions, as a repeated measured design was used. So differences between recall after presentation of 1 or 2 code lists are not due to different memory abilities of the participants 4 The repeated measures design would mean that the IV is obvious to the participants. This may influence their behaviour as they may try really hard to please the experimenter, or not try in an attempt to sabotage the study.

Warning This is not a study conducted by other psychologists, so you must not use this example as support for / challenge against the explanations of forgetting

Forgetting How do we define forgetting? Failure to retrieve information Failure to access stored information

Task 1 a) You are watching the TV in the sitting room. You want to get a coffee from the kitchen. You walk in, put the kettle on. But subsequently, your phone rings and it’s your best mate. You go into your bedroom for a chat which lasts more than 20 minutes. After the phone call ends, you return to the sitting room and continue watching the TV, you forget all about the coffee. The phone call has interrupted you whilst making a coffee. Whilst you talk to your friend, this new information interferes with the older information of ‘making a coffee’. So when you go back to the sitting room, you have forgotten about the coffee.

Task 1 b) You are in a new relationship and you take your partner to a café for some lunch. As you ask them what they would like to eat, you accidently call them by your ex-partner’s name. Your new partner gets angry and leaves the restaurant. Your new partner is unhappy, is this a little unfair? In this instance, old information has interfered with new information, and is common in causes of forgetting. It does not mean you think more of your ex…… apparantly!

Task 1 c) You are in your French exam, trying to remember the past participle of a particular verb, but all you can recall is the equivalent verb in Spanish, which you learned as a child when your family lived in Costa Rica for a year. Frustrating, but this kind of thing has happened to most of us. Again, information previously learned has interfered with new information, causing the confusion

Task 1 d) You have a facebook password and a gmail password, but they are different. You had your gmail account first and your facebook account a little later. Last night, when trying to remember your gmail password, all you can remember is the facebook password. In this instance, we still have forgetting due to interference, but here it is the new information learned which is interfering with the recall of the old information

Interference theory It was assumed that memory can be disrupted or interfered with by what we have previously learned or by what we will learn in the future.  Information in LTM becoming confused and disrupted by other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall Interference theory states that forgetting occurs because memories interfere with and disrupt one another, in other words forgetting occurs because of interference from other memories (Baddeley, 1999).  There are two ways in which interference can cause forgetting.

1. Proactive interference (pro=forward) occurs when you cannot learn a new task because of an old task that had been learnt.  When what we already know interferes with what we are currently learning – where old memories disrupt new memories. 
2. Retroactive interference (retro=backward) occurs when you forget a previously learnt task due to the learning of a new task. In other words, later learning interferes with earlier learning - where new memories disrupt old memories.

Task 2 – answers to questions With interference theory, what is the general idea of why we forget information in LTM? Interference theory suggests that forgetting is due to information in LTM becoming confused with or disrupted by other information during coding, leading to inaccurate recall What are the two types of interference called?  Proactive interference and Retroactive interference What is it called when old information interferes with the accurate recall of new information?  proactive interference What it the main cause of this type of forgetting (identified in question 3)  Usually due to the strength of the old learning (recalled many times so memory trace is strong) compared with the weakness of the new learning (not used enough so the memory trace is weaker) Give an example of this type of forgetting Recall of a new password is incorrect because of the competing strength of the old password that you have used many times What is the term used to identify when we cannot accurately recall older information because of interference of more recently learned information? Retroactive interference Not being able to recall an old car registration number because of interference from the new one.

Task 3 – pro or retroactive? You are watching the TV in the sitting room. You want to get a coffee from the kitchen. You walk in, put the kettle on. But subsequently, your phone rings and it’s your best mate. You go into your bedroom for a chat which lasts more than 20 minutes. After the phone call ends, you return to the sitting room and continue watching the TV, you forget all about the coffee. New information (phone call) interfered with old information (making coffee) - Retroactive interference   You are in a new relationship and you take your partner to a café for some lunch. As you ask them what they would like to eat, you accidently call them by your ex-partner’s name. Your new partner gets angry and leaves the restaurant Old information (ex’s name) interfered with new information (new partner’s name) -Proactive interference You are in your French exam, trying to remember the past participle of a particular verb, but all you can recall is the equivalent verb in Spanish, which you learned as a child when your family lived in Costa Rica for a year. Old information (spanish) interfered with new information (french) - Proactive interference You have a facebook password and a gmail password, but they are different. You had your gmail account first and your facebook account a little later. Last night, when trying to remember your gmail password, all you can remember is the facebook password. New information (gmail password) interfered with old information (facebook password) - Retroactive interference

Task 5 – exam question answer Researchers collected a sample of 211 former students of a Dutch elementary school and sent them a map of the surrounding area of the school. The map had the street names removed and replaced with numbers from 1 – 48. Participants were asked to name as many as they could. The researchers found that there was a positive association with how many times the participants had moved outside the area, and the number of names forgotten. Explain how this study would support the role of retroactive interference in forgetting (3 marks) This demonstrates that learning new street names made recalling the old street names more difficult (1 mark) as it is assumed that the more times people moved from the area, the more new street names they would have to learn (2 marks). This shows that retroactive interference played a role in forgetting the older learned street names and not just time passed (3 marks).