EXPLANATIONS FOR FORGETTING:

INTERFERENCE THEORY

 Forgetting in the long term memory occurs when memories become inaccessible
 Interference occurs when one set of information competes with another, causing it to be overwritten or physically destroyed
 There are two types of interference: proactive interference (PI) and retroactive interference (RI)

AO1:
Proactive interference: Retroactive interference:
 Occurs when old information interferes with the recall of new  Occurs when new information interferes with the retrieval of old
information information
McGeoch and McDonald – effects of similarity in interference:
 Retroactive interference (new disrupts old) can be studied by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials in a laboratory experiment

Procedure
 Participants had to learn a list of 10 words (list A), until they could remember them with 100% accuracy
 There was a 10 minute interval and then they were asked to learn a new list (list B), followed by recall
 There were 6 groups of participants who had to learn different types of lists for list B e.g. synonyms, nonsense syllables etc.

Findings
 When participants recalled the word lists, their performance was affected by list B
 The most similar lists produced the worst recall
 If list B was different i.e. nonsense syllables the there was less of an effect on recall

Conclusion
 This shows that interference is strongest when memories are similar

 Consistent findings from
laboratory research
P A strength of the interference
theory is that there is consistent
supporting research
E For example, interference has
been demonstrated by a range of
different laboratory studies that
used different stimuli and
procedures. For example,
Postman had two groups of
participants learn a list of paired
words such as cat-tree, jelly-moss
etc. The experimental group had
to learn another list of words
where the second paired word is
different such as cat-glass, jelly
time, whereas the control group
were not given the second list.
Recall was higher in the control
than the experimental group. This
shows that interference based on
the pairing of words can also lead
to forgetting
E This is a strength because it
shows the effects of interference
(retroactive interference) and so
is a reliable phenomenon that is
found in a range of different
experimental conditions
L Therefore this increases the
validity of interference as an
explanation of forgetting
AO2/AO3:
 Application to the real world
P Another strength of interference P A limitation of the interference
theory is that it has practical
application
E For example, there is a lot of
research on the effects of
interference when people are
exposed to adverts from
competing brands within a short
time period. Danaher et al. found
that both recall and recognition
of an advertiser’s message were
impaired when participants were
exposed to two adverts for
competing brands over a week
E This is a strength as from our
understanding of interference
Danaher et al. has suggested that
one strategy might enhance the
memory trace by running
multiple exposes to an
advertisement in one day rather
than spread out during the week.
This results in reduced
interference from competitor’s
advertisements
L Therefore, this shows how
psychological research into
interference theory can be
applied to the real world
ー Research was conducted in
laboratory settings
theory of forgetting is that much
of the research evidence has
come from artificial laboratory
experiments
E For example, tasks given to test
interference required special
conditions e.g. word pair stimuli
are generated for the purpose of
the experiment
E This is a problem because these
conditions are very rare in day-to-
day life therefore the research
appears to have little relevance to
everyday situations
L As a result, ecological validity can
be questioned as interference
can only account for a very
specific and limited range of
forgetting in LTM
ー Interference is a weak form of
forgetting
P A further limitation of the
interference theory is that the
effects may actually be
temporary rather than a
permanent form of forgetting
E For example, Ceraso found that if
memory was tested again after
24 hours, recognition showed
considerable spontaneous
recovery
E This suggests that interference
occurs because memories are
temporarily not accessible rather
than actually being lost or
overwritten, which contradicts
the theory
L Therefore it could be argued that
interference is actually a fairly
weak form of forgetting

NOTE: Only select the relevant AO1s (e.g. 2/3 points) and four evaluation points (AO2/AO3)