Retroactive Interference Theory

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Description 4

Operant Conditioning 4

Gate Control Theory 5

Interference Theory 6

Review 7

Conclusion 8

References 9

Introduction

Operant Conditioning is a learning process, where decisions are controlled by the consequences. The name for it first came from Burrhus Skinner (1938), although he did not completely initiate the voluntary behavior studies. It was firstly studied extensively by Edward Thorndike. He came up with the idea that behaviors that end up with satisfying consequences tend to be repeated, in what is today known as Thorndike’s law of effects (Thorndike 1901). Today this theory is used widely in the world and has been a resounding success in psychology.

Gate Control theory of pain states

There are two types of interference that can happen in the memory: Proactive and Retroactive. Proactive interference is about the newly acquired memories getting forgotten into the oblivion because of the memories that are older than them, while retroactive interference happens when they are forgotten due to the newer memories.

For the product I am only going to use the retroactive interference. It suggests that by learning new stuff, one might accidentally ‘unlearn’ the older memories, despite the fact that he remembers knowing them. This is true for similar languages or other activities that employ the same body elements, but are still different. Therefore, studying Kazakh if you know Uzbek could make you forget Uzbek, since they are so similar, it can take the form of speaking Kazakh when you are trying to speak Uzbek.

It also works on advertisements and other everyday objects (Briggs, 1954). This is why I will be using this theory for my product so as to make sure it works effectively and is being forgotten easily. This will definitely be the key selling point of it.

Its main application is in economics and business as expected. The sole purpose in healthcare is to make it easier for the patients to remember the brand names of their medicines or to remember times well enough when they are taking several medicaments. A great example of such an use is the similar brand names that medicaments that do the same have got such as: Clozapine and Olanzapine, they are both used for treating schizophrenia and can often replace each other, which is why it is helpful for them to be called similar names, so that according to interference theory there will be more chance of the patients remembering the name and buying the correct