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Memory is a somewhat fickle thing. Although it can perform extraordinary feats, for instance, remembering what happened on your 11th birthday when you’re 60 years old, it can also just as easily forget what happened the day before.
Some people have photographic memories and can recall every bit of information they ever come across. The rest of us are not so fortunate, and we are subject to the tumultuous nature of forgetting or struggling to recall information. The struggle to recall information can be due to multiple reasons. However, here we are concerned specifically with a concept known as interference.
Interference, Flaticon
Interference is an explanation for long-term memory forgetting, as according to this theory, forgetting occurs because memories interfere with one another. Interference happens when a memory similar to the one someone is trying to recall ‘interferes’ and stops recalling the wanted memory.
There are two types of interference: proactive and retroactive interference. The proactive and retroactive interference examples below will help you understand what they entail.
Proactive interference in psychology is when an old memory interferes with recalling a new memory.
Suppose a woman gets married and changes her surname. She should write her new surname on official documents, but she keeps forgetting and writing her maiden name.
Retroactive interference in psychology is when a new memory interferes with recalling an old memory.
Suppose someone moves to a new address. After a while, they forget their old address (especially the postcode).
There are many contemporary studies on interference theory in psychology, as much research has been conducted to investigate the effect of interference on forgetting. We will look at a study by McGeoch and McDonald (1931).
McGeoch and McDonald (1931) aimed to investigate the effect of retroactive interference on forgetting in long-term memory.
Participants had to remember a list of words until they could recall the list perfectly (100% accuracy). Then, participants had to learn a new, second list. There were six groups, so each group learned a different set of words for the second list. There was one control condition.
In the McGeoch and McDonald study (1931), participants had to remember a list of words, Flaticon
You can see the groups listed in the table below:
| Group 1 | Synonyms – words with the same meaning as the originals |
| Group 2 | Antonyms – words with the opposite meanings as the originals |
| Group 3 | Words unrelated to the original words |
| Group 4 | Nonsense syllables |
| Group 5 | Three-digit numbers |
| Group 6 | No new list – these participants just rested (Control Condition) |
Participants then had to recall the original list of words.
Group 1, who learned the list with the most similar material (synonyms), had the worst recall. Group 5, who learned the most irrelevant material (numbers), had the best recall, apart from the control group.
The more similar information is, the more likely it will interfere with other memories.
In the following, we will present an evaluation of the McGeoch and McDonald (1931) study.
Research from other lab experiments supports McGeoch and McDonald’s findings: Underwood and Postman (1960) conducted a study in which participants were divided into two groups and asked to learn a list of word pairs, e.g., cat–tree. The first group had to learn this list, and then a second list where the first word remained the same but the second word changed, e.g., cat–glass. The second group only had to learn the first list of word pairs. After this, both groups had to recall the first list of word pairs. The second group’s recall was much more accurate than the first group’s, showing the interference of new information on old memories.
Memory recall, Flaticon
We can see the effect of interference in the real world. Baddeley and Hitch (1977) asked rugby players to try to remember the names of the teams they had played against during the season. Some players had played in all the games, but some had missed some games due to injury. Those that had played against fewer teams recalled more. This finding suggests that as fewer team names interfere with their memory, their recall was better.
As this was a lab experiment with an artificial task of learning lists of words, the study lacks ecological validity. It is hard to apply this type of memory formation and the resulting interference variables in everyday situations. People generally do not spend their time memorising lists of words and performing an interference task specifically intended to ‘interfere’ with the first list.
Tulving and Psotka (1971) found that when participants were given cues, which led to better recall of lists of words. This finding suggests that interference effects can be nullified. Only considering the interference theory of forgetting may have overlooked the effect of cue-retrieval in memory.
Interference is an explanation for long-term memory forgetting, as according to this theory, forgetting occurs because memories interfere with one another. Interference happens when a memory similar to the one someone is trying to recall ‘interferes’ and stops recalling the wanted memory.
A pivotal study is by McGeoch & McDonald (1931). Researchers aimed to investigate the effect of retroactive interference on forgetting in long-term memory. They found the more similar information, the more likely it will interfere with other memories.
When two pieces of information are not similar, there is less chance for interference. The findings by McGeoch & McDonald (1931) support this idea. Also, using cues to aid memory retrieval can reduce the impact of interference causing forgetting.
The two types are proactive interference and retroactive interference.
Suppose a woman gets married and changes her surname. She should write her new surname on official documents, but she keeps forgetting and writing her maiden name.
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