explanations for forgetting - retrival failure

Question 1

what is retrieval failure

Answer 1

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

Question 2

what is encoding specificity principle

Answer 2

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

Question 3

what are the two types of cues

Answer 3

context-dependent forgetting -recall depends on external cue (place)

state-dependent forgetting - recall depends on internal cue (being drunk)

Question 4

research on context dependent forgetting

Answer 4

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

Question 5

research on state dependent forgetting

Answer 5

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

Question 6

give one strength of explanations of forgetting - retrieval failure

Answer 6

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

Question 7

give one strength of explanations of forgetting - retrieval failure

Answer 7

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

Question 8

give one limitation of the explanations of forgetting - retrieval failure

Answer 8

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