EXPLANATIONS FOR FORGETTING: RETRIEVAL FAILURE Flashcards
1
Q
lack of cues cause retrevial failure
A
- when info initially placed in memory associated cues are stored at the same time.
- if the cues are not avaliable at the time of retrevial, you might not acess memories that are actually there.
2
Q
encoding specifically priciples - tulving
A
- cues help retrevial if the same ones are present both at encoding and at retrevial
- if the cues are entirely absent there will be some forgetting
3
Q
context dependent forgetting
A
- occurs when environment during recall does not match the environment whilst learning.
4
Q
state dependent forgetting
A
- occurs when mood or psychological state during recall does not match mood during learning.
5
Q
godden & baddley context, dependant forgetting
A
- asked divers to learn a list of words either underwater or on land and then recall them either underwater or on land.
- the results showed that highest recall occurred when the initial learning matched the recall environment.
6
Q
godwin state dependant forgetting
A
- tested this over a two-day experiment with medical students
- on day one, the participants were asked to learn a word list while sober or drunk and then on day two, asked to recall them whilst sober or drunk.
- on the day of recall, more mistakes were made in conditions where psychological state did not match.
- accurate recall was highest when conditions matched.
7
Q
(real life applications) ABERNATHY’S APPLICATION ON EXAMS
A
- research suggests that you should revise in the room where you will sit your exam as it can be used as an external cue.
- this may be unrealistic but subsequent research has shown that thinking of the room in which you were learning is just as effective as being in that room at the time of recall.
-
Futhermore - For example, Context dependent forgetting has successfully been applied to the cognitive interview, a method of police interviewing that aids eyewitnesses to recall more information by taking them back to the crime
scene. - This enables eyewitnesses to recall more information because the crime scene acts as an external cue which helps trigger memories and therefore helping people recall more.
- this is a strength of retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting because it shows that it can be applied to real world situations.
8
Q
a strength is theres an impressive range of supporting evidence
A
- goddens and baddley (divers) and carter and cassaday (drugs) show the lack of cues at recall leads to everday forgetting.
- in fact eyesneck and keane argue that retrevial failure is prehaps the main reason for forgetting in the LTM.
- this evidence shows that retrevial failure due to lack of cues occur in everday life as well as in futhermore - (explain) highly controlled labs
9
Q
baddley counter of exams
A
- argues that context effects are not actually very strong.
- in order for context to make an effect, the two environments must be very different.
- it is very hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater.
- this means that retrevial failure may be due to lack of contextual cues may not exp everday forgetting.
10
Q
a limitation effects vary in recall and recognistion
A
- godden and baddeley replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of recall
- there was no context-dependant effect. findings were the same in all four conditionss whether the contexts for leaning recall matched or not
- this suggests that retrevial failure is limited explanations for forgetting because it is only applied when a person recalls info rather than recognises it
11
Q
a limitation is there are problems with ESP
A
- retrevial failure theory is supported by research showing that forgettiing occurs when there is a mismatch of cues the esp
- however, we cannot independantly establish whether a cue has really been encoded or not - so argument for the role of cues is circular.
- therefore isnt scienctifically testiable (emphasis) doesnt meet the needs of psychology as a science
