explanations for forgetting - retrieval failure

Question 1

what is retrieval failure

Answer 1

retrieval failure is where the information is in long term memory but cannot be accessed. such info is said to be available because its still stored but not accessible (it cant be retrieved) it cant be accessed retreival cues not present

Question 2

what is context dependent

Answer 2

in external environment like smell or place - have to experience again

Question 3

what is state dependent

Answer 3

internal cues such as physical or emotional
eg have to be sad to learn something again

Question 4

what is encoding specificity principle

Answer 4

tulving argued that information would be more readily retrieved if the cues present when the info was encoded were also present when its retrieval was required

Question 5

what did tulving suggest about environment and state

Answer 5

info about physical surroundings (external context) and physical or psychological state of learner (internal context) is stored at the same time as information is learned. reinstating state or context makes recall easier by providing relevant info, retrieval failure occures when appropriate cues not present

Question 6

pete se for state dependent forgetting

Answer 6

p: research by carter and cassaday indicates importance of state dependence forgetting
e: they gave participants anti histamine durgs (for hayfever making pts drowsy) and got them to learn and recall words in one of four conditions.
group 1 - learn on drug, recall on drug
group 2 - learn on drug, recall not on drug
group 3 - learn not on drug, recall on drug
group 4 - learn not on drug, recall not on drug
results show that those who had recalled in the same internal state they learned had significantly better recall than non matching states
t: this suggests that the retrieval of info is improved if it occurs in the same internal state in which it was learned
e: drugs affect people in different ways due to side effects. may not be accurate and cant assess it

Question 7

limitation: ce

Answer 7

p: godden and baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of a recall test
e: participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from the list. performance was the same in all four conditions. presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in a certain way.
t: therefore does not reflect real life - low eco val

Question 8

limitation - usefulness

Answer 8

p: baddeley argues contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen
e: eg learning something in one classroom and recalling it another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough
t: the real life application of retrieval failure due to contextual cues dont actually explain much forgetting

Question 9

strength se for context dependent forgetting

Answer 9

p: research by godden and baddeley indicates the importance of context depedent forgetting
e: they asked deep sea divers to learn and recall a list of words in one of four conditions
group 1 - learn on land, recall on land
group 2 - learn underwater recall on land
group 3 - learn on land recall underwater
group 4 - learn underwater, recall underwater
results show those who had recalled in same enviro which they learned in recalled 40% more words than those recalling in different enviro.
t: suggests retrieval of info is improved if it occurs in context which it was learned