4. Retrieval Failure and Interference

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about different explanations for forgetting, focusing in particular on: (i) explanations based on the failure to retrieve information from memory, such as Tulvig’s Encoding Specificity Principle; (ii) the role of interference in forgetting; (iii) how research on this topic has evolved over time; (iv) the effects of retro-active interference on memory formation and consolidation.

Course

In this course, Dr Davide Bruno (Liverpool John Moores University) explores the cognitive psychology of memory and forgetting. In the first lecture, we think about the multi-store memory model, developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. In the second lecture, we think about the working memory model, developed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. In the third lecture, we look at different types of long-term memory, including episodic, semantic and procedural memory. Next, we think about the cognitive processes involved in forgetting, focusing in particular on retrieval failure and interference. In the fifth and final lecture, we conclude the course with an overview of amnesia, a clinical condition associated with significant memory loss.

Lecturer

Davide Bruno was born in Italy and graduated in Psychology from the University of Parma, then obtained a PhD from Keele University (2007). After positions at the University of Southampton, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the Nathan Kline Institute, New York University, and Liverpool Hope University, he joined Liverpool John Moores University as a Senior Lecturer. His interests are, broadly, memory, ageing and dementia.