Forgetting – Interference

Need help preparing for the Psych/Soc section of the MCAT? MedSchoolCoach expert, Ken Tao, will teach everything you need to know about Forgetting and Interference for Memory. Watch this video to get all the MCAT study tips you need to do well on the psychology section of the exam!

The interference effect occurs when the recall of some memories interferes with the retrieval of other memories. For the MCAT, there are two different types of interference that you need to know of: proactive interference and retroactive interference.

Proactive interference occurs when older memories interfere with the retrieval of new memories. For example, let’s say a pool of subjects was divided into two groups. Half are tasked with only memorizing a list of mammals, and the other half are tasked with first memorizing a list of trees, but then memorizing the same list of mammals. Participants in the second group will perform worse as memorizing the list of mammals, because they have recently encoded other information, disrupting the process of encoding new memories.

Retroactive interference occurs when you learn new information that disrupts the retrieval of old information. For example, say you memorized a new phone number. Learning that new phone number might make it more difficult to recall your old phone number. The new information is retroactively interfering with your old memory.

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