Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure Flashcards
Retrieval failure
form of forgetting when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
cue
‘trigger’ for information that allows us to access a memory. Cue may be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning. Indirect cues may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkenness)
Retrieval failure due to the absence of cues:
Reason people forget info - because of insufficient cues
When info is placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time
If cues are not available at the time of recall, it seems you have forgot the info
BUT it is due to retrieval failure - not being able to access memories
encoding specificity principle:
Tulving 1983 reviewed research into retrieval failure - he discovered a consistent pattern.
Encoding specificity principle - states that a cue (if it will be helpful) has to be both present at encoding and present at retrieval (when we are recalling)
It follows from this that if the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different (or if cues are entirely absent at retrieval) there will be some forgetting
Some cues encoded at the time of learning in a meaningful way. E.G. The cue ‘STM’ may lead you to recall all sorts of info about short term memory .
Cues are used in many mnemonic techniques
Other cues are also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way- we will consider two example of non- meaningful cues
Context dependent forgetting - recall depends on external cue(weather / place)
State dependent forgetting - recall depends on internal cue (feeling upset, being drunk
Research on context dependent forgetting ?
Procedure - Godden+ Baddeley 1975 studied deep see divers who work underwater to see if training on land helps or hinders their work underwater
divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land - then were asked to recall the words wither underwater or on land
what were the four different conditions ?
learning on land - recalling on land
learning on land - recalling underwater
learning underwater - recalling on land
learning underwater - recalling underwater
what were the findings and conclusions?
the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas the other 2 did not
accurate recall was 40% lower in non matching conditions
they concluded that the external cues available at learning were different from the ones available at recall and this lead to retrieval failure
what is the research on state dependent forgetting?
procedure - carter and Cassaday 1998 gave antihistamine drugs to participants
the drug had a mild sedative effect - making the participants slightly drowsy
this creates an internal physiological state difference from the ‘normal’ state of being awake and alert
the participants had to learn a list of words and passages of prose and then recall the info again - creating four conditions
what were the four conditions?
- learning on the drug - recalling when on the drug
- learning on the drug - recalling when not on the drug
-learning not on the drug - recalling when on the drug
learning not on the drug, recalling when not on drug
what were the findings of this study?
in conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse, so when the cues were absent (e.g. when drowsy recalling info but alert when they learnt it)
then there is more forgetting
what is a real world application strength?
that retrieval can help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations
although cues may not have a very strong effect on forgetting, Baddeley suggests they are still worth paying attention to
e.g. when you go and get something then forget what it is, the moments you go back to the first room, you remember
when we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment you learned it in
this shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall
research support strength?
strength is the impressive range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation
studies by Godden and Baddeley, Carter and Cassaday are juts 2 examples as they show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context- dependent and state dependent forgetting in everyday life
memory researchers Eysenck and Keane 2010 argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM
this evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab
