Introductory Topics in Psychology: Paper 1 Interference theory of forgetting

To Start… A Quick Test Last lesson we had to learn a set of short words and long words. How many of them can you remember today?

How many did you get correct? Last lesson Words How many did you get correct? Why? Association Representative Discouragement Meaningfulness Suppression Enhancing Component Performances Forgetting Damaging Harm Twice Calm Share Tree Book Sun Four Key Short

By the end of the lesson… Success Criteria What is interference theory and how does it explain forgetting? By the end of the lesson… Understand To describe interference theory of forgetting. Apply To explain real life examples of interference theory. Analyse To compare and contrast different types of interference. Evaluate To discuss strengths, weaknesses and evidence of interference theory of forgetting.

Important You need to know two theories of forgetting! These are different from theories of memory. Interference Theory Retrieval Failure

What is Interference? Forgetting Clip The Multistore model of memory states that LTM has an unlimited capacity, and memories have a duration of potentially a lifetime. However, we know by experience that we forget information stored in the LTM. But does that mean the memories are gone (availability), or we just can’t reach them (accessibility) ?

Forgetting What is Interference?

Imagine you have learned to drive a car in the UAE – you drive on the right hand side of the road. You then fly to England for a holiday and hire a car. Driving out of the airport, you narrowly avoid causing an accident because you failed to drive on the left – which type of interference is this??? Then you return to the UAE, and driving out of the car park you find yourself in the right hand lane – which type of interference is this?

Time for another memory test! Forgetting Time for another memory test! You are going to see 10 words on the screen. Try and remember as many as you can!

Forgetting Frame

Forgetting Song

Forgetting Bold

Forgetting Feet

Forgetting Clock

Forgetting Cushion

Forgetting Walk

Forgetting Wave

Forgetting Anger

Forgetting Plant

Now re-call as many of the ten words as you can remember!  Forgetting Task: Now complete the word search as a re-cap of last lesson on the working memory model. Now re-call as many of the ten words as you can remember!  Frame Cushion Song Walk Bold Wave Feet Anger Clock Plant

Now lets try again: Round 2 Forgetting Now lets try again: Round 2 You are going to see another 10 words on the screen. Try and remember as many as you can!

Forgetting Speak

Forgetting Sound

Forgetting Two

Forgetting Ring

Forgetting Retain

Forgetting Visible

Forgetting Focal

Forgetting Manager

Forgetting Breadth

Forgetting Consequence

Now re-call as many of the ten words as you can remember!  Forgetting Task: Now finish off the word search Now re-call as many of the ten words as you can remember!  Speak Visible Sound Focal Two Manager Ring Breadth Retain Consequence

Which words were recalled better? Why? Forgetting Which words were recalled better? Why? Evidence has shown that the more similar the interference is to the words being remembered, the worst recall is. In this case, the words on the word had similar meanings to the second round of words. Therefore we would expect the similarity to interfere with our recall of the words = worse recall! This was found by McGeoch & Mcdonald in 1931

Forgetting Confident so far? Understand If you are still feeling unsure… Read the text book and write notes on Proactive/Retroactive interference summaries in your workbooks. Apply Read the three sets of evidence on your worksheet. Underwood & Postman Baddeley & Hitch McGeoch & Mcdonald Write a conclusion for each study, explaining what it suggests about interference theory. Evaluate How can each of these pieces of evidence be evaluated? In terms of their methods?

Forgetting Evaluate 1) Most of the studies supporting this theory come from laboratory experiments. Why is that a limitation? 2) However this can also be a strength. Explain 3) Does it take into account the nature of the material to be remembered? 4) Baddeley (1990) states that the tasks given to participants are too close to each other. What happens in real life? Give an example. 5) The research does not investigate whether the information has “disappeared” or can be recovered later. Why is that a limitation?

Apply it Forgetting Caleb Now you’ve learned it, can you explain real life situations…? Caleb