Question

In the experiment on forgetting when the subject is asked to recall words from list 1, s/he can recall
words from the list 2. Identify the kind of interference.​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Proactive and Retroactive Interference

By Saul McLeod, published 2018

Interference is an explanation for forgetting in long term memory, which 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).

This idea suggests that information in long term memory may become confused or combined with other information during encoding thus distorting or disrupting memories.

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.

Proactive and retroactive Interference is thought to be more likely to occur where the memories are similar, for example: confusing old and new telephone numbers. Chandler (1989) stated that students who study similar subjects at the same time often experience interference.

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Results: The recall of the control group was more accurate than that of the experimental group.

Conclusion: This suggests that learning items in the second list interfered with participants’ ability to recall the list. This is an example of retroactive interference.

Evaluation

Although proactive and retroactive interference are reliable and robust effects, there are a number of problems with interference theory as an explanation of forgetting.

First, interference theory tells us little about the cognitive processes involved in forgetting. Secondly, the majority of research into the role of interference in forgetting has been carried out in a laboratory using lists of words, a situation which is likely to occur fairly infrequently in everyday o life (i.e. low ecological validity). As a result, it may not be possible to generalize from the findings.