Summary
This writing will focus on Proactive Interference- Information learned earlier in life that interferes with the information learned more recently.
James Latrechiano
10/22/23
Proactive Interference
Interference is a problem many people face when trying to retrieve information that was learned from their past. There are two forms of interference, proactive interference, and retroactive interference. Both interferences affect the retrieval of information due to past or added information that was learned. Retroactive interference describes the memory of recent information making old information that you learned hard to remember. However, I will be focusing on proactive interference, which causes information learned earlier in life to interfere with more recently learned information. An example would be not remembering a friend’s new phone number after recognizing his old phone number for such a long time. Trying to remember related topics is when interference mostly comes into play because you cannot fully tell the difference between old and new memories.
One of the times I experienced proactive interference was when I was a junior in high school. A bridge that I drove on multiple times a day, located directly outside of my neighborhood, was shut down for construction purposes. Growing up, I took this bridge every day to school, friend’s houses, and sports practice. My brain was wired to take this route as an instinct, and breaking this habit was quite difficult. I found myself still attempting to take this route from time-to-time, even weeks after it was shut down. Following the closing of the bridge, it caused my sister and I to be late to school a couple times because of my second instinct taking over my actions. This bridge was my main route of transportation to many places throughout my whole life, so it was a noticeably substantial change. Constantly obtaining information and storing new things into your brain, on top of having to suddenly learn something new, takes a big toll on the brain. My experiences took a while to get used to, which shows the true power of long-term memory and proactive interference.
Sources:
Mcleod, Saul. “Proactive and Retroactive Interference | Simply Psychology.” Simplypsychology.org, 2018, www.simplypsychology.org/proactive-and-retroactive-interference.html.