Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval Failure Flashcards
Define retreival failure.
- Forgetting/not being able to remember the information because you haven’t got the right cues
What is the encoding specificity principle?
- The closer the cues are at recall to the cues that were present at the time of learning, the greater memory will be, but if the cues are absent at recall greater forgetting will occur
What are state cues?
Cues such as:
Hormone levels (effect mood)
Satiety levels (e.g hunger)
Inhebritation levels (e.g drunk/sober)
What are context cues?
Cues such as:
The environment (e.g. location,noise,smell)
Activites (e.g chewing gum)
What is context dependant forgetting and and state dependant forgetting?
Context dependant forgetting- Recall depends on external cue (e.g. a weather or a place)
State-dependant forgetting- Recall depends on internal cue (feeling upset, being drunk)
What is state dependant retreival?
Demonstrated when material learned under drug is best recalled in that same drug state
What was Godden and Baddeley’s study?
In a free recall experiment 18 divers learnt lists of words in two natural environments: on dry land & underwater
And recalled the words in either the environment of original learning or in the alternative environment
Lists learnt under water were best recalled underwater, and lists learnt on land were best recalled on land
What were Godden and Baddely’s findings?
- Around 50% better recall when learning/recall are the same
- 40% more words forgotten when conditions change
Evaluate Godden & Baddeley’s study.
- Has very low mundane realism as its diving
- Low population validity
- Shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of a lab
What was the aim of Carter and Cassidy’s (1988) research?
To test whether state dependency can be induced by an antihistamine
What was the procedure of Carter and Cassidy’s research?
Administered chlorpheniramine (AH) in a ‘cross over’ design with four experimental conditions based on drug state at encoding and recall
These were:
* AH ± AH
* AH ± Placebo
* Placebo ± Placebo
* Placebo ± AH
There were three measures of retrieval: Free recall of a list of 20 words, followed by cued recall of the same list of words and free recall of a short passage of information
What were the findings of Carter and Cassidy’s research?
For all these measures, state dependancy was demonstrated: Subjects performed better in congruent (AH±AH) and (Placebo±Placebo) than in the disparate (different) conditions (AH±Placebo).
Given that their sedative effects are well known, many students take antihistimines for the managment of hayfever only as necessary.
However the clear implication of the present study is that intermittent (irregular) use of chlorpheniramine may result is retrieval difficulties
What was Overton’s research?
Bo+B rats/humans are more likely to forget information if learned/recieved in different states (drunk & sober) compared to (drunk & drunk) (sober & sober) etc
Evaluate Overton’s research.
This increases validity of retrieval failure due to store cues as a theory of forgetting
What was Abernethy’s study?
4 equated sections of 2 classes in psychology (181 students) were subjected to objective tests in 4 topics in the course under the following 4 conditions in different orders: regular instructor, regular classroom; regular instructor, different classroom; different instructor regular classroom; different instructor, different classroom.
This procedure occured 2 months after assignment to regular classroom seats; no other conditions of testing were changed, and no suggestion given the procedure was extraordinary
