PSY30400 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Interference Theory, Memory Span
Chapter 5: Short-Term Memory and Working Memory
• Short-Term Memory:
▪ However, Keppel and Underwood found that memory for letters in Trial
1 was high even after tested during the 18 second duration and then
performance began to drop, so Brown looked at why memory becomes
worse after a few trials
• Suggested that the drop-off in memory was NOT due to decay of
the memory trace, but rather to proactive interference, which
occurs when information that was learned previously interferes
with learning new information
o Old learning interferes with new learning
o As a result, they concluded that recalling the letters on the
first few trials created interference that made it more
difficult to remember the letters presented on the later
trials
o Conducted an experiment to test this in which learning a
large number of French words made it more difficult to
learn a list of Spanish words a little later because the
French interferes with Spanish
• Retroactive Interference:
o occurs when new learning interferes with remembering
old learning
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