Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Alzheimer’s disease
An illness 
characterized in part by severe 
memory problems.
Study
French
Study
Spanish
Take French
test
Study
French
Time
Time
Study
Spanish
Take Spanish
test
Int
erference 
In
ter
ference 
Retroactive interference:
French test performance
impaired by study of Spanish
Proactive interference:
Spanish test performance 
impaired by study of French
FIGURE 3 
Proactive interference occurs 
when material learned earlier interferes 
with the recall of newer material. In this 
example, studying French before studying 
Spanish interferes with performance on 
a Spanish test. In contrast, retroactive 
interference exists when material learned 
after initial exposure to other material 
interferes with the recall of the fi rst 
material. In this case, retroactive inter-
ference occurs when recall of French is 
impaired because of later exposure to 
Spanish.
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236 Chapter 
7 
Memory
Alzheimer’s disease is one of a number of memory dysfunctions. Another is 
 amnesia,  memory loss that occurs without other mental diffi culties. The type of 
amnesia immortalized in countless Hollywood fi lms involves a victim who receives 
a blow to the head and is unable to remember anything from his or her past. In 
reality, amnesia of this type, known as retrograde amnesia, is quite rare. In  retrograde 
amnesia, 
memory is lost for occurrences prior to a certain event. Usually, lost mem-
ories gradually reappear, although full restoration may take as long as several years. 
In certain cases, some memories are lost forever. But even in cases of severe memory 
loss, the loss is generally selective. For example, although people suffering from 
retrograde amnesia may be unable to recall friends and family members, they still 
may be able to play complicated card games or knit a sweater quite well (Verfaellie 
& Keane, 2002; Bright, Buckman, & Fradera, 2006).
A second type of amnesia is exemplifi ed by people who remember nothing of 
their current activities. In  anterograde amnesia  loss of memory occurs for events that 
follow an injury. Information cannot be transferred from short-term to long-term 
memory, resulting in the inability to remember anything other than what was in 
long-term storage before the accident (Gilboa, Winocur, & Rosenbaum, 2006).
Amnesia is also a result of  Korsakoff’s syndrome,  a disease that affl icts long-
term alcoholics. Although many of their intellectual abilities may be intact, Korsa-
koff’s sufferers display a strange array of symptoms, including hallucinations and a 
tendency to repeat the same story over and over (van Oort & Kessels, 2009).