Explanations for forgetting (retrieval failure)

Question 1

Define retrieval failure

Answer 1

• when an individual is unable to access the memories available/are already there

Question 2

Who proposed the encoding specificity principle (ESP)

Answer 2

• Tulving

Question 3

what does the ESP state

Answer 3

• if a cue is to help us to recall info it has to be present at encoding and at retrieval

Question 4

Outline Godden & Baddeley’s study of deep sea divers

Answer 4

• divers learnt a list of words either on land/ underwater, before being told to recall the list
• 4 conditions:
  learn on land; recall on land / learn on land; recall underwater
  learn underwater; recall on land / learn underwater; recall underwater
• findings: the accuracy of recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions

Question 5

Outline Carter & Cassadays research

Answer 5

• gave anti-histamine drugs to ppts
• drug had a mild sedative making ppts drowsy
• creating a different psychological state from normal
• ppts had to learn a list of words & then recall the info
• there were four conditions:
  learn on drugs; recall on drugs / learn on drugs; recall off drugs
  learn off drugs; recall off drugs / learn off drugs; recall on drugs
• findings: mismatch between internal state at learning and recall- performance on memory test was significantly worse

Question 6

Give one strength of this explanation of forgetting

Answer 6

• supporting evidence
• eg Eysenck goes as far as to argue retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM
• this increases validity of the explanation

Question 7

Give a limitation of this explanation

Answer 7

• Baddeley argues context effects are not very strong; especially in real life
• it would be hard to find a an environment as different from land as underwater
• the real life application of retrieval failure due to the contextual cues do not explain much forgetting