Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Memory (AQA GCSE Psychology)

Interference refers to how information is lost from long-term memory (LTM)

Interference occurs when one memory prevents the retrieval of another memory

Interference can occur when memories are similar e.g. you learnt French at school and this keeps getting in the way of you learning German

Research support for interference comes from Baddeley & Hitch (1977):

• The researchers were interested in seeing if interference was a stronger factor in forgetting than the passing of time

• They asked rugby players who had played every game in one season to recall the names of the teams against whom they had played

• They found that the rugby players’ recall depended on how many games they had played:

  • rugby players who had played every game were more likely to forget matches

• The researchers concluded the later games had interfered with recall of the earlier matches, thus it was interference rather than time that affected memory

• A strength of this research is that it is high in ecological validity as it used real players recalling real matches

• A weakness of this research is that it does not explain why forgetting occurs when information is dissimilar

Context in terms of the accuracy of memory is when memory in LTM cannot be accessed as there are no cues to prompt that memory

• A cue is any stimulus which can aid the retrieval of a memory, for example:

  • The 'Fun Song Factory' theme tune - I used to watch this all the time when I was little

  • The smell of cleaning fluid - Smells just like my primary school did at home time

  • A bright red leather jacket - I wore that when I went on my first date with Bob!

• In other words the cue provides the context required to retrieve the memory

Research support for interference comes from Godden & Baddeley (1975):

• The researchers aimed to investigate whether memory was better for words learned and recalled in the same environment or different environments (the context was learning/recalling on land or underwater)

• The sample comprised 18 participants (13 males and 5 females) from a university diving club, who were divided into four conditions:

  1. Learning words on land/recalling on land

  2. Learning words on land/recalling underwater

  3. Learning underwater/recalling underwater

  4. Learning underwater/recalling on land

The experiment used a repeated measures design (each participant took part in all four conditions, over four separate days)

The results showed that words learned underwater were better recalled underwater and words learned on land were better recalled on land

In short, context is key for retrieval to happen, the flip side of which is that without the right context for retrieval forgetting is more likely

A strength of this research is has good application to school settings e.g. students should sit exams in the same room in which the material was learnt to optimise recall of information

A weakness of this research is that the participants were given an artificial task which means that the study lacks mundane realism

False memories are any memories of events/episodes that did not actually occur (or which occurred very differently in real life) but which someone ‘remembers’

False memories may be formed as a result of reconstructive memory as they consist of altered versions of the event

Some people may produce false memories as a result of being in therapy in an attempt to resolve conflicts within themselves

False memories have potentially catastrophic consequences when they are used as evidence by witnesses in a court of law

Research support for interference comes from Loftus & Pickrell (1995):

• The researchers were interested in seeing whether a false memory could be implanted in participants

• The participants (21 females, 3 males; age range 18-53) were given a booklet containing four short stories provided by their relatives

  • Threes of the stories were true; one of the stories was false

• For each participant the false event involved them being lost in a shopping mall aged 5, crying and being helped by an elderly woman (this event had not happened at all)

• The participants were asked to write down what they could remember about each event

• A week or so after the booklet had been filled in, the participants were interviewed by the researchers and asked:

  • to rate how clear each memory was on a scale of 1-10

  • to rate how confident they were in each memory from 1-5

  • to recall more details if they could

• A couple of weeks after this first interview the participants were interviewed again, following the procedure as outlined above

• The researchers debriefed the participants as to one of the memories being false and were asked which memory they thought was the false one

  • 49 from a total of 72 true memories were recalled by participants (68%)

  • 6 of the participants (25%) said that they recalled the false event (lost in a mall)

  • The false memory was recalled with more clarity during the second interview (up from 2.8 to 3.6)

  • 19 of the participants identified that the false memory was ‘lost in a shopping mall’

• A strength of this research is that it uses a standardised procedure which means that it is replicable and can thus be tested for reliability

• A weakness of this research is that it is ethically dubious:

  • Participants were deceived as to the true nature of the study (although they were told about this during debriefing)

  • Implanting a false memory could be harmful for some people who may be vulnerable to suggestion and manipulation