a psychological process where one cognitive task or piece of information prevents another from being completed or memorized. This phenomenon has been studied in the field of memory and learning as it can hinder the ability to remember or reproduce information. The effects of interference were first described by G. Muller and F. Schumann in their work in 1894. Their study showed that the results of playback were reduced when an additional task was introduced between the memory and the playback. This phenomenon, known as retroactive inhibition, acts on the past by reducing the strength of associations formed in previous responses. The main types of interference are:
1) Proactive interference – when old information interferes with the storage of new information. For example, learning one language can make learning a second language more difficult due to the similarity of vocabulary and grammar.
2) Retroactive interference – new information interferes with recalling previously learned information. For instance, looking at a phone number that is new can lead to forgetfulness about an old number.
Management psychology and business psychology understand interference in a broader context as the disruption of a normal process by another process.