Explanations for Forgetting : Retrieval Failure

Question 1

Why does retrieval failure happen

Answer 1

Absence of cues, lack of cues at time of retrieval may not access memories that are actually there

Question 2

What is it called when the same cues are present at encoding and retrieval + Psychologist name

Answer 2

Encoding Specifity - Tulving

Question 3

What are the two type of cues

Answer 3

• Context dependent forgetting - recall depends on external cue
• State depended forgetting - recall depends on internal cue

Question 4

Who investigated Context dependent forgetting

Answer 4

Godden and Baddeley

Question 5

What were the findings of Godden and baddeley’s study

Answer 5

Recall was 40% lower in mismatched contexts compared to matched (learn on land/water - recall on land/water)

Question 6

Who investigated State dependent forgetting

Answer 6

Carter and Cassadey

Question 7

What were the finding in Carter & Cassadays study

Answer 7

Recall significantly worse in mismatched cues compared to matched cues (learn on drug/not on drug - recall on drug/recall not on drug)

Question 8

Evaluation of Retrieval failure
- 2 strengths
- 1 limitation

Answer 8

+ Real world application
+ Range of supporting evidence
(Eysenck argues retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting in LTM)
- Context effects vary in recall and recognition (Recognition and Baddeley replicated experiment using recognition test instead of recall - no context depending effect)