Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure Flashcards
Cues?
Things that serve as reminders
Retrieval failure?
Occurs due to the absence of cues. When you try to retrieve a memory that is there but not accessible.
What is forgetting in LTM mainly due to?
Retrieval failure due to insufficient cues
What did Endel and Tulving and Donald Thomson propose?
That memory is more effective if information that was present at encoding is also available at the time of retrieval.
What does the encoding specificity principle state?
That a cue doesn’t have to be exactly right but the closer the cue is to the original item, the more useful it will be.
What did Tulving and Pealstone investigate?
The value of retrieval cues
What was the method of Tulving and Pealstones investigation on retrieval cues?
A group of participants where asked to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories. Each word was presented as category and a word e.g fruit-apple. Participants had to either recall as many words as they could (free recall) or they where given cues in the form of the category names (cued recall)
What where the results of Tulving and Pealstones investigation on retrieval cues?
Participants in the free recall group could remember 40% of the words correctly. However, in the cued recall group participants could remember 60% of the words correctly.
What was the evaluation of the Tulving and Pealstones investigation in retrieval cues?
The investigation provides evidence that cues can be encoded either implicitly or explicitly at the time of learning which have a meaningful ink to the learning material which can help in recall.
What did Ethel Abernethy study?
Context-dependent forgetting
What was the method of Abernethys study on context-dependent forgetting?
She arranged for a group of students to be tested each week. There where 4 experimental conditions in this study. Either the students where tested in their usual teaching room by their usual instructor, tested in their usual teaching room by a different instructor, tested in a different room by their usual instructor or tested in a different room by a different instructor.
What where the results of Abernethys study on context-dependent forgetting?
The students that where tested by their usual instructor in their usual teaching room performed best. She found that superior students where least affected by the changes and inferior students where affected the most.
What was the evaluation of Abernethys study on context-dependent forgetting?
Familiar things/context (the room and instructor) can act as a memory cue.
What are context-dependent cues?
the improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context (environment) present at encoding and retrieval are the same.
What are state-dependent cues?
through which memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness (same emotional state) as they were when the memory was formed.
What was the method of Godden and Baaddeleys study on the effect of contextual cues?
Scuba divers where recruited and asked to learn a set of words either on land or under water. They where then asked to recall these words either on land or under water.
What where the results of Godden and Baaddeleys study on the effect of contextual cues?
The highest recall occurred when the initial context matched the recall environment (e.g Learning under water and recalling underwater).
What did Goodwin et al study?
State-dependent forgetting
What was the method of Goodwin et al’s study on state-dependent forgetting?
Male volunteers were asked to remember a list of words when they where either drunk or sober. The participants where then asked to recall the list after 24 hours when some where drunk and some where sober.
What where the results of Goodwin et al’s study on state-dependent forgetting?
Information learned when drunk is more available when in the same state later.
What did Aggleton and Waskett study?
How smells can act as powerful retrieval cues
What was the method of Aggleton and Wasketts study on smells being powerful retrieval cues?
The participants where people that had visited the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, 6-7 years ago. Smells where very much a feature of the display on viking life. The participants where asked questions about the museum either with the smells of the museum or without.
What where the results of Aggleton and Wasketts study on smells being powerful retrieval cues?
The group with he smells did best
What did Smith show in 1979?
That just thinking of the room where you did the original learning was just as effective as actually being in the room
What is the outshining hypothesis?
A cue’s context affects are largely eliminated when learning meaningful material
What did James Nairne believe?
That the relationship between encoding cues and later retrieval is a correlation rather than a cues.
What did Alan Baddeley believe?
That the encoding specificity principle is impossible to test because it is circular. I the stimulus leads to the retrieval of a memory than it must have been encoded in memory. If it does not lead to retreival of a memory then, according to the encoding specificity principle, it can’t have been encoded in memory. But it is impossible to test for an item that hasn’t been encoded in memory so this can’t be proved.
