Question

Research shows that when people are presented an irrelevant distractor stimulus at the end of a word list they must recall, it impairs their ability to recall the last item on the list compared to a control group to whom there was no distractor stimulus. this finding is evidence for which theory of forgetting?

Answer 1

The fact that the appearance of an irrelevant distractor, while an individual is recalling a word list, is evidence of the interference theory of forgetting.

This theory states that forgetting is caused by the appearance of competing memories. There is 2 categories. Retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with the retrieval of old information and proactive interference occurs when old information interferes with the retrieval of new information.

In this example, this is a case of retroactive interference because an irrelevant distractor (new information) appears while the individual is recalling items on a word list (old information).