How Does Proactive and Retroactive Interference (Definition + Examples) Work?

Proactive and retroactive interference are like when your brain gets confused by old or new information.

Imagine you're learning to ride a bike, that's proactive interference if you suddenly try to learn how to skate too, and the bike skills get in the way of your skating. It’s like trying to remember one song while singing another, the first one messes up the second one.

Now, retroactive interference is when something new makes it harder to remember something old. Like if you learn a new song after practicing an old one, and now you mix up the words of both songs. The new song comes in after the old one, so it messes it up, like a sneaky sibling who jumps in right before bedtime.

You can think of your brain as a toy box, when you add too many toys at once (retroactive interference), or keep adding more and more toys without cleaning out the old ones (proactive interference), it gets really hard to find what you’re looking for!

Sometimes, the best way to remember is to take breaks between learning new things.