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memory
New memories actively overwrite what you already remembered.
Retroactive interference describes the inhibition or competitive interference that makes it difficult to retrieve older memories due to the acquisition of new, similar information.
Memory is not overwritten or deleted like a file in a computer system; rather, the accessibility of the original memory is reduced through interference or inhibition.
You lose your past every time you acquire new, similar information.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Müller & Pilzecker, 1900
- What the check found
- While the definition of retroactive interference is correct, the 'overwriting' metaphor is scientifically inaccurate; interference affects access and retrieval rather than destroying stored memory.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.