Pete taught Psych 100 last term and is teaching it again this term. When he runs into one of his students from last term, he can only remember names of his students from this term. Pete's inability to remember his students' names from the last term is most likely due to _____.

Question

Pete taught Psych 100 last term and is teaching it again this term.  When he runs into one of his students from last term, he can only remember names of his students from this term.  Pete's inability to remember his students' names from the last term is most likely due to _____.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question describes a situation where Pete can remember the names of his current term's students but cannot recall the names of his students from the previous term. This points to a memory phenomenon where newer information hurts the recall of older information.

Retroactive interference is the idea that new learning disrupts the ability to retrieve previously stored information. In this case, learning a new cohort's names appears to interfere with the older cohort's names, making the old memories harder to access.

To consider alternatives conceptually:
- Proactive interference would mean the old information (last term's student names) disrupts learning or recall of new information (this term's names). That would predict trouble recalling current names, not trouble recalling older names, which is not what’s described.
- Encoding failure would suggest that Pete never stored the last term’s names well in the first place. The scenario notes he can remember the current term’s names, implying that some encoding did occur for new information, making encoding failure unlikely as the primary cause.
- Retrieval failure or tip-of-the-tongue states would imply the memories are stored but temporarily inaccessible. However, the defining feature here is that the newer material actively disrupts the retrieval of the older material, which aligns with retroactive interference rather than a transient retrieval hurdle.
- Decay would indicate that memories fade over time without rehearsal. While time could contribute, the specificity of younger material impairing older material fits interference rather than simple decay.

In sum, the most fitting explanation is retroactive interference: the new learning (this term’s student names) interferes with the retrieval of older learning (last term’s names).

psyc_100_120251_246086 Practice Exam 2

Pete taught Psych 100 last term and is teaching it again this term. When he runs into one of his students from last term, he can only remember names of his students from this term. Pete's inability to remember his students' names from the last term is most likely due to _____.

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