Editing Interference theory (section)

==History==
John A. Bergström is credited with conducting the first study regarding interference in 1892. His experiment was similar to the [[Stroop task]] and required subjects to sort two decks of cards with words into two piles. When the location was changed for the second pile, sorting was slower, demonstrating that the first set of sorting rules interfered with learning the new set.<ref name=Rieber>{{cite book|editor1-last=Rieber|editor1-first=Robert W.|title=Psychology theoretical-historical perspectives|year=1998|publisher=American Psychological Association|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1-55798-524-8|edition=2nd|editor2=Salzinger, Kurt D.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781557985248}}</ref> German psychologists continued in the field with [[Georg Elias Müller]] and Pilzecker in 1900 studying retroactive interference. To the confusion of Americans at a later date, [[Georg Elias Müller|Müller]] used "associative Hemmung" (inhibition) as a blanket term for retroactive and proactive inhibition.<ref name="Rieber"/>

The next major advancement came from American psychologist [[Benton J. Underwood]] in 1957. Underwood revisited the classic [[Hermann Ebbinghaus|Ebbinghaus]] [[learning curve]] and found that most of the forgetting was due to interference from previously learned materials.<ref>Underwood, B. J. (1957). Interference and forgetting. Psychological Review, 64(1), 49.</ref>

In 1924, John G. Jenkins and Karl Dallenbach showed that everyday experiences can interfere with memory, employing an experiment that showed that retention was better throughout sleep than over the same amount of time devoted to the activity.<ref name = Hilgard>{{cite book|last=Hilgard|first=Ernest R.|title=Psychology in America: a historical survey|year=1987|publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location=San Diego|isbn=978-0155392021}}</ref> The United States again made headway in 1932 with John A. McGeoch suggesting that [[decay theory]] should be replaced by an interference theory.<ref name="Hilgard"/> The most recent major paradigm shift came when Underwood proposed that proactive inhibition is more important or meaningful than retroactive inhibition in accounting for forgetting.<ref>{{cite book|last=Neel|first=Ann|title=Theories of Psychology: a handbook|year=1977|publisher=Schenkman Publishing Company|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780470989685|edition=Revised and enlarged}}</ref>