explanations for forgetting - retrieval failure Flashcards
what is retrieval failure?
a form of forgetting. it occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
what is a cue?
a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory. such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning, indirect cues may be external (environmental) or internal (mood or alcohol levels).
describe retrieval failure due to the absence of cues.
the reason people may forget info may be because of insufficient cues. when information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time. if these cues are not available at the time of recall, it may appear as if you have forgotten the info but in fact this is due to retrieval failure - not being able to access memories that are there.
who proposed the encoding specificity principle?
Tulving (1983).
describe the encoding specificity principle.
Tulving (1983) reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern to the findings. he summarised this pattern in what he called the encoding specificity principle.
states that a cue has to be both PRESENT AT ENCODING and PRESENT AT RETRIEVAL.
if the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different, or entirely absent at retrieval, there will be some forgetting.
some cues are encoded at the time of learning in a meaningful way - used in mnemonic techniques.
other cues are also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way - for example:
context dependent forgetting - recall depends on external cue (e.g. weather or a place).
state depending forgetting - recall depends on internal cue (e.g. feeling upset).
what are the two examples of non-meaningful cues?
context dependent forgetting.
state dependent forgetting.
who conducted research into context dependent forgetting?
Godden and Baddeley (1975).
outline the procedure of research into context dependent forgetting.
Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep sea water divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater. the divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either on land or underwater. this created four conditions:
- learn on land / recall on land.
- learn on land / recall underwater.
- learn underwater / recall on land.
- learn underwater / recall underwater.
outline the findings and conclusions of Godden and Baddeley (1975) - research into context dependent forgetting
in two of these conditions the environmental contexts matched, in the other two they did not.
accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions.
they concluded that the external cues available at learning were different from ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure.
who conducted research into state dependent forgetting?
Carter and Cassady (1998).
describe research into state dependant forgetting.
Carter and Cassady (1998) gave antihistamine drugs to their ptps. the drugs had a mild sedative effect making the ptps slightly drowsy. this creates an internal physiological state different from a normal state of being awake and alert. the ptps had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and then recall the info again creating four conditions:
- learn on drug / recall on drug.
- learn on drug / recall not on drug.
- learn not on drug / recall on drug.
- learn not on drug / recall not on drug.
in the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state of learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse. so when the cues are absent then there is more forgetting.
discuss research support as a strength of retrieval failure.
one strength of retrieval failure is research support for the explanation.
G&B and C&C show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context and state dependant forgetting in everyday life.
this evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as the highly controlled conditions of a lab.
however, Baddeley argues that context effects are not actually very strong, particularly in everyday life. different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen. for example, it would be difficult to find an environment as different from land as underwater. in contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the two environments aren’t different enough.
this means that retrieval failure due to a lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting.
discuss recall vs recognition as a limitation of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting.
Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall - ptps had to say if the recognised a word read to them from a list instead of retrieving it.
when recognition was tested there was no context-dependent effect, performance was the same in all four conditions.
this suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting as it only applies when a person has to recall info rather than recognising it.
However, despite its limited application to forgetting retrieval cues can help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations.
state dependent forgetting is used as a strategy to improve eye witness memory when the witnesses are asked to describe their mood at the time of the incident they witnessed - part of the cognitive interview.
this adds value to retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting.
