Psychology Chapter on Memory Interference

Proactive and Retroactive Interference

• Proactive interference hinders learning new information by forgetting previously learned information.
• It primarily affects short-term memory and the previously learned information.

Recency Effect in List Learning

• The recency effect in list learning is explained by hindsight bias not impairing the last item on the list.

Memories After Years

• Memories spontaneously recalled after years often evoke strong emotions.

Controversial Topic in Psychology

• The heated controversy among psychologists is whether it's better to study all at once or spread out study sessions.
• Other controversy is how reliably can clinicians recover lost memories and the importance of interference in forgetting.

Long-Term Memories

• Formation of new long-term memories includes episodic, procedural, and the ability to imagine future events.

Korsakoff's Syndrome

• People with Korsakoff's syndrome typically have retrograde amnesia without anterograde amnesia.
• A defining characteristic is confabulation and an inability to recognize faces.

Infant Amnesia

• Immaturity of the hippocampus isn't a complete explanation for infant amnesia, rather the rate of hippocampal maturation varies.

Testing Weakest Memories

• Free recall, cued recall, recognition, and savings in that order are methods of testing which detects the weakest Memories

Procedural vs. Declarative Memory

• Procedural memory involves rapid extinction.
• This is in contrast to declarative memory which develops gradually

Police Lineups

• Psychologists recommend a wide variety of suspects to avoid bias.

Short-Term Memory Capacity

• Short-term memory has a limited capacity (about 4-5 items).
• Sensory memory fades quickly.

Semantic Memory

• Semantic memory is a type of long-term memory for facts and general knowledge.

False Memories

• Believing false reports read many times on the internet is likely due to source amnesia.
• This is also due to problems with sensory store and episodic memory functions.

Short-Term Memory Duration

• On average, information stays in short-term memory for less than a second.

Emotional Arousal and Memory

• Emotional arousal improves memory storage and interferes with storage.
• Emotional arousal can also interfere with consolidation

Optimizing Memory Retention

• Words remembered best when thinking about their use in survival situations.

Depth of Processing

• Depth of processing relates to how strongly a memory impacts the unconscious mind.
• It's also related to the number and variety of connections made during encoding.

Studying Strategies

• The best strategy for effective studying involves varied times and settings and regular self-testing.

The Effect of Testing

• Testing oneself on new information improves memory retention.

Describing Unfamiliar Things

• Attempting to describe something you don't perfectly remember involves filling in gaps with reasonable guesses.
• This can make the recall more confusing and incoherent.

Theory of Mind

• Children without "theory of mind" often assume others know what they know.

Proactive Interference

• Proactive interference is when old information hinders the learning of new information.

Explore the intriguing concepts of proactive and retroactive interference in memory, including their impact on learning and retention. This quiz discusses the recency effect, long-term memory formation, and the controversies surrounding memory recovery. Test your understanding of these critical psychological topics.