Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure

Question 1

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 1

A form of forgetting which occurs when we don’t have necessary cues to access memory

Question 2

What is a cue?

Answer 2

• a ‘trigger’s of info that allows us to access a memory
• they could be meaningful or indirectly linked as they’re encoded at the time of learning
• cues can be external or internal

Question 3

How does insufficient cues cause people to forget information?

Answer 3

• when info is initially placed in memory its associated cues are stored at the same time
• if cues aren’t available at the time of recall it may appear that info has been forgotten

Question 4

What was Tulving’s research into retrieval failure: ESP?

Answer 4

• he reviewed research into retrieval failure and found a consistent pattern in the findings
• he summarised the pattern into Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP)
• this states that if cue helps us to recall info it has to be present at encoding and retrieval
• if cues at encoding & retrieval are different then forgetting may occur
• some cues are encoded during time of learning in not a meaningful way

Question 5

What are examples of cues that are encoded during time of learning in not a meanigful way?

Answer 5

• context-dependent forgetting (external cues)
• state-dependent forgetting (internal cues)

Question 6

What was Baddeley & Goden’s study (1975) into context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 6

• divers were asked to learn a list of words either underwater or on land & asked to recall them land/underwater
• there were 4 conditions:
  learn on land - recall on land
  learn on land - recall underwater
  learn underwater - recall underwater
  learn underwater - recall on land
• 2 environmental contexts of learning & recall matched whilst the other 2 didn’t
• accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions since external cues for learning & recall were different which led to retrieval failure

Question 7

What was Carter & Cassaday’s study (1998) into state-dependent forgetting?

Answer 7

• they gave pps anti-histamine drugs which treated hay fever & has slight side effects of drowsiness
• this creates internal physiological state that is different to the ‘normal’ state of being alert
• pps learned a list of words/passages and were asked to recall
• 4 conditions
  learn on drug - recall on drug
  learn on drug - recall not on it
  learn not on it - recall not on it
  learn not on it - recall on drug
• in conditions where internal state at learning & recall was different the recall was significantly worse

Question 8

Evaluation: Supporting evidence

Answer 8

• a lot of research supports retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting
• studies by Goden & Baddeley and Carter & Cassaday are examples
• Eysenck (2010) argues that retrieval failure could be the main reason for forgetting from LTM
• this is a strength because supporting evidence increases validity of an explanation
• evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-life situations & also highly controlled lab studies

Question 9

Evaluation: Questioning context effects

Answer 9

• Baddeley argues that context effects aren’t that strong especially in real life
• contexts have to be very different for an effect to be seen which can be difficult to achieve
• however learning & recalling something in 2 different rooms is unlikely to result in significant forgetting since those environments aren’t different enough
• this is a limitation because it means that real-life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues doesn’t explain forgetting

Question 10

Evaluation: Recall vs recognition

Answer 10

• it can be argued that context effect may be related to the kind of memory test done
• e.g. Godden & Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but instead pps had to recognise the word as part of the list instead of learning them
• when recognition test was done there was no context-dependent effect so performance was the same in all 4 conditions
• this is a limitation for context effects because it means that the presence/absence of cues only affects memory when tested in a certain way

Question 11

Evaluation: Real-life applications

Answer 11

• Baddeley suggests that context effects are still worth paying attention to even though they don’t have a strong effect on forgetting
• when trying to remember something it’s worth making the effort to recall the environment in which it was first learned
• e.g. you’re in your bedroom and you go downstairs to get something but have forgotten so go back upstairs to remember it again
• this is a basic principle of cognitive interview which is a method of getting eyewitnesses to a crime to recall more info