explanations for forgetting - retrival failure Flashcards
what is retrieval failure
reason people forget info may be because of insufficient cues
when info is initially placed in memory associated cues are stored at the same time
if these cues are not avail even at the time of recall it may appear that you have forgotten the info but it is due to retrieval failure
what is encoding specificity principle
Tulving
reviewed research unto retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern to the findings
states that
a cue has to be present at encoding and present at retrieval
if social cues availed at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some forgetting
what are the two types of cues
context-dependent forgetting -recall depends on external cue (place)
state-dependent forgetting - recall depends on internal cue (being drunk)
research on context dependent forgetting
Godden and baddeley studied deep sea divers
learned a list of words underwater or on land
asked to recall words underwater or on land
4 conditions
conclusions- 2 of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning snd recall matched whereas other two did not
accurate recall was 40% lower in the non matching records
concluded that the external cues availed at learning were different from the cues availed at recall and this led to retrieval failure
research on state dependent forgetting
Carter and Cassaday gave antihistamine drugs to their participants
mild sedative effects - different form the normal state
learn lsists of words and recall in 4 conditions
in the conditions where they was a mismatch between the internal state of learning and recall performance was worse
give one strength of explanations of forgetting - retrieval failure
real world applications
strength
retrieval cues can help to overcome forgetting in everyday situations
example - going to a room forgetting something
cues may not have s very string effect on forgetting but baddeley suggest they are worth paying attention to
when we have trouble remembering something it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you learned it
shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall
give one strength of explanations of forgetting - retrieval failure
research support
strength
range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation
Godden and Baddely study of divers
shows that lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to contact dependent forgetting and state dependent forgetting in life
evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab
give one limitation of the explanations of forgetting - retrieval failure
recall versus recognition
limitation
context effects may depend substantially on the type of memory being used and tested
Godden and Baddely replicated their under water experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall
participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from a lost instead of retirigeing it for themselves
when recognition was tested there was no context dependent effect performance was the same in all four conditions
suggest that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it