One of the most important properties of human memory is forgetting, which serves protective purposes and actually determines the human ability to memorize new information throughout the lifespan. The present paper, using the interference theory of forgetting as a framework, discusses the case of forgetting because of the background noise.
First of all, the process of learning itself is thwarted because of the background music: in fact, the individual is receiving information through 2 perception channels, auditory and visual. According to the levels-of-processing theory, humans longer remember the information, learned deliberately, but due to the fact that the auditory input also leaves its memory trace (Sternberg, 2006; Goldstein, 2007). When the roommate turns on music, two types of learning take place: international (at the conceptual level) and accidental, and the latter, as one can understand, interferes with the former, distracting attention, first and foremost. When the attention is split into the two parallel inputs, the individual is not able to force themselves “not to listen” to the music, as this irritant is fixed by attention automatically. Subsequently, the process of memorizing is split as well, moreover, due to the fact that music is reproduced very loudly, it is difficult to adjust to it so that it also interferes as a “pervasive” and persistent irritant.
Not surprisingly, even after the audible input is removed, the memory span will be encountered by the learner. This phenomenon is explained by the interference perspective in the most comprehensive way. This approach focuses on the events that preceded, followed as well as accompanied the process of learning. Interference theory identifies two major cases associated with memory and forgetting. First of all, retroactive interference: “Here, more recent learning interferes with the recall of earlier learning. For example, someone may learn to drive a car with a manual transmission and later learns to drive an automatic. If he goes back to a manual car, he may try to drive it as an automatic” (Clemson, 1995, p. 148). The situation of proactive interference is converse, as in this case, earlier learning affects later learning. As one can understand, the given case refers more to retroactive interference, which means the person forgets the information from the textbook, as the auditory reproduction overlaps the deliberate “semantic” learning. On the other hand, proactive interference can be identified as well, as memorizing remains problematic even after the noisy irritant is removed.
Clemson (1995) observes that the most probable cause of proactive interference is interference with recollection. The difficulty of storing information in STM increases with the accumulation of new experiences, “but when the category of information is changed (e.g., from recalling numbers to recalling words), performance goes back up to the previous highest levels (this is called release from proactive inhibition)” (Clemson, 1995, p. 148). In 1972, Gardiner and his colleagues showed that it didn’t matter whether the switch to another category was signaled to the person after the learning or in advance (Clemson, 1995). Due to the fact that it is informing subjects that the category has been recently changed after they have read or heard phrases are not likely to influence the way the text is stored, the distinction in performance must be associated with retrieval (Sternberg, 2006).
To sum up, studying with the background of loud music is counterproductive, as it is also an information channel that interferes with the comprehension and memorization of more important information.
Works cited
Clemson, W. (1995). Learning Targets: Key Stage 1/Scotland P1-P3. Nelson Thornes Publications.
Goldstein, E (2007) Cognitive Psychology (2nd ed) Thomas Wadsworth.
Sternberg, Robert J. (2006). Cognitive psychology, 4th edition. Thomson Wadsworth