Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Darby dissertation final format.pdf (1.98 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Interference Effects and Memory Development

Darby, Kevin Patrick
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1491233945346347

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Memory is an essential aspect of cognition, enabling us to retain information that can be used to guide decision-making and future planning. However, we often forget information due to proactive and retroactive interference from other, competing memories. Proactive interference occurs when new learning is more difficult as a result of previously acquired memories, whereas retroactive interference occurs when it is more difficult to remember previously acquired information as a result of new learning. Recent work has presented evidence that children are more vulnerable to interference effects than adults, experiencing dramatic levels of forgetting due to new learning. An essential question is what mechanisms modulate interference and changes in the magnitude of interference across development. This dissertation uses four experiments to examine factors modulating susceptibility to interference, including consolidation (i.e., the stabilization of memory traces across time) and memory binding (i.e., forming complex associations between multiple elements of an experience). Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effect of time delays on children’s susceptibility to retroactive interference by comparing forgetting due to new learning upon immediate testing and following a 48-hr delay. The results indicated that children’s retroactive interference was strong when memory was probed immediately after learning of new information, but was eliminated following a delay, suggesting a powerful role of consolidation in early memory development. Experiments 3 and 4 were designed to test whether memory binding processes might contribute to children’s and adults’ ability to resist interference effects. These experiments introduced a new paradigm to test interference and memory binding in 5- and 8-year-old children, as well as adults, and found evidence of decreased susceptibility to interference and improvements in memory binding across development. In addition, individual differences in complex memory binding predicted resistance to retroactive interference effects. Finally, a manipulation designed to decrease memory binding resulted in somewhat increased retroactive interference. Overall, these results suggest that complex memory binding may help reduce susceptibility to retroactive interference, although there was less evidence of a relationship between memory binding and proactive interference. The findings of these four experiments are discussed in relation to the effects of time delays on children’s interference, developmental change in memory binding processes, and the potential relationship between memory binding and interference.
Vladimir Sloutsky (Advisor)
John Opfer (Committee Member)
Per Sederberg (Committee Member)
124 p.
Developmental Psychology; Psychology
Memory; memory development; cognitive development; retroactive interference; proactive interference; multinomial processing tree model

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Darby, K. P. (2017). Interference Effects and Memory Development [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1491233945346347

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Darby, Kevin. Interference Effects and Memory Development. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1491233945346347.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Darby, Kevin. "Interference Effects and Memory Development." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1491233945346347

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1491233945346347
1,362
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.