Psychology Question
Required text: Goldstein, E.B. (2019). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. (5rd edition). Cengage Learning.
Prompt: In line with what we learned about last week, give an example and explain your experiences with
- a) proactive interference and
- b) retroactive interference.
Write 1-2 paragraphs in response to the prompt. Support your initial post with at least one reference; include the reference at the end in an APA-formatted citation (if applicable; you can use the textbook if you’d like). Respond to at least two peers. Be substantive in your peer posts; ask questions to get them thinking a little more, provide useful resources that you may have found on the topic, etc. Peer posts that are generic and provide little thought/detail will be given a zero.
Peer 1 : Kassandra La Magra
Proactive Interference:
A student who previously learned French may struggle to remember certain Spanish vocabulary due to how their previous knowledge affected their ability to learn new words. This condition is referred to as proactive interference. It occurs when a person’s knowledge of a certain subject makes it hard for them to retain or learn new information. For instance, in thiscase, their knowledge of French is affecting their ability to recall Spanish The student’s previous exposure to French may be affecting how they learn Spanish. Both of these Romance languages share many similarities, such as their grammar rules and word roots. The confusion caused by these similarities can make it hard for students to remember the correct Spanish vocabulary or the correct grammar rules. When an individual’s older memories prevent them from accessing new information, this condition is referred to as proactive interference. It can make it hard for students to retain or learn new material due to how their prior knowledge can affect their ability to recall or comprehend it.
Retroactive Interference:
For instance, an individual has been using a particular computer software for a long time and is very proficient in its features. When their company updates its software, this individual’s ability to use it will be greatly affected. The user interface, new methods, and functions of the software are some of the things that people need to learn in order to use it successfully. Even though they are already proficient in the older version, they might struggle to remember its specific procedures and functions. When acquired knowledge makes it hard for an individual to recall a certain concept, this condition is called retroactive interference. The changes brought about by the new software can make it harder for an individual to retain or recall their older memories. The new information that is presented in the new version of the software completely counters the old information, which makes it hard for the individual to perform their old tasks.
Retroactive interference occurs when the learning of new information interferes with the recall of old information from long-term memory and an example that I can provide is when I try to learn something new in college that has already been taught to me differently. When I was learning this week’s lesson it was difficult for me because my professor was teaching it to me very differently from what I learned in high school so the new methods that I was learning were so hard to remember and do. Proactive interference refers to the interference effect of previously learned materials on the acquisition and retrieval of newer information. An example of this could be when I moved apartments and whenever I needed to state my address, for something I
would automatically say the address of the old place.
Teague, E. B., Langer, K. G., Borod, J. C., & Bender, H. A. (1970, January 1). Proactive interference. SpringerLink. Retrieved March 17, 2023, from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_1142#:~:text=Definition,previously%20learned%20the%20old%20number.
