Explanations Of Forgetting

Question 1

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 1

A form of forgetting that occurs when there are not the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.The theory works on the idea of forgetting in LTM.

Question 2

What is a cue?

Answer 2

A trigger or hint of information that allows a person to access memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly liked by being encoded at the time of learning. Cues may be external or internal.

Question 3

What is context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 3

Occurs when the environment during recall is different from the environment a person was in when learning occured.

Question 4

An example context dependent forgetting.

Answer 4

You forget the content for a test, as the exam room is different from the classroom that you learnt the content in.

Question 5

What is state- dependent forgetting ?

Answer 5

Occurs when a persons mood or psychological state during recall is different from the mood they were in when they were learning.

Question 6

Example of state-dependent forgetting.

Answer 6

You forget information when drunk because you learnt it when sober.

Question 7

Godden and Baddeley (1875) - research

Answer 7

Aim : To investigate context dependent forgetting
Procedure: Divers learnt words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land.
*check results in flipped reading
Findings : condition 2 and 3 where recall conditions were not matching meant recall was 40% lower when in matched conditions(. (1 and 4)
Conclusion: People are more likely to forget information if the external cues that were available at the time of learning are not available at the time of recall.

Question 8

Carter and Cassaday ( 1998 ) - research

Answer 8

Aim : To investigate state dependent forgetting
Procedure : Antihistamine drugs were given to participants. These are a mild sedative that can make people feel slightly drowsy. The participants had to learn lists of words and then recall the information, when they were either under the influence of the
antihistamine drugs or in a ‘normal’ state.
* check flipped reading for results of study
Findings : In conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse.
Conclusions : People are more likely to forget information if the internal cues that were available of the time of learning, are not available at the time of recall.

Question 9

What are three strengths of retrieval failure?

Answer 9

1. A range of laboratory, field and natural experiments support the idea of retrieval failure. For example, Godden and Baddeley (1975) demonstrated the importance of context-dependent learning and Carter 25
   and Cassaday (1998) demonstrated the importance of state-dependent forgetting. Research support increases the likelihood that this is a valid explanation for forgetting.
2. Retrieval failure has real-life applications. It has been used by the police to create reconstructions of unsolved crimes. ‘Jogging’ the memory of witnesses by recreating the context of the incidence led to the capture of Danielle Jones’ murderer in 2001. Conviction occurred due to witnesses coming forward after they watched a reconstruction of the incident on TV. This provides evidence that forgetting is less likely when cues that are present at the time of encoding are there at retrieval.
3. Context-dependent forgetting has face validity. Individuals regularly experience situations where forgetting occurs because the environment changes. This could have practical applications. When people have forgotten something, it is probably worth encouraging them to make the effort to remember where they were when they learnt it. This is one of the basic principles of the cognitive interview.

Question 10

What are three limitations of retrieval failure?

Answer 10

1.Many studies supporting retrieval failure are laboratory based and the memory tasks are not like everyday memory tasks. For example Godden and Baddeley used word lists. This lacks mundane realism and therefore lacks ecological validity and therefore lacks external validity. Everyday tasks may include remembering a shopping list.

2. The research conducted to support this explanation is very different to how this type of forgetting occurs in the real world. Baddeley argued that context effects are not actually very strong in real life. Contexts must be very different before an effect is seen e.g., underwater and on land. Learning something in one room and then recalling it in another is not likely to produce the same degree of forgetting. This is a limitation because it means that forgetting due to retrieval failure does not actually explain forgetting in the real world.
3. It may be impossible to test context-dependent forgetting. In experiments where a cue produces the successful recall of the word, it can be assumed the cue must have been encoded at the time of learning. If the cue does not produce the recall, it can be assumed it was not encoded. However, these are just assumptions. This may mean that the experiments have low internal validity.

Question 11

What is interference?

Answer 11

Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories
to be distorted or forgotten. Occurs in LTM.

Question 12

What is proactive interference?

Answer 12

Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of
newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are
similar.

Question 13

What is retroactive interference ?

Answer 13

Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories,
already stored. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.

Question 14

An example of proactive interference.

Answer 14

An example would be calling your current boyfriend/girlfriend by the name of your ex- boyfriend/girlfriend. The newer information is therefore ‘forgotten’.

Question 15

An example of retroactive interference.

Answer 15

An example would be not being able to remember your old postcode because all you can think about is your new postcode. The older information is therefore ‘forgotten’.

Question 16

McGeoch and Mcdonald (1931) - research

Answer 16

Aim :To investigate whether the similarity of memories influences recall.

Procedure : Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with100% accuracy.Participants then had to learn another list of words. There were 6 different conditions (including one control group), each with a different second word list to remember.
*check flipped reading for word list
Findings : Recall of the original list was dependent on the nature of the second list. The most similar material, group 1 synonyms, produced the worst recall.

Conclusions : Interference is strongest when the memories are similar.

Question 17

What are three limitations of Interference theory?

Answer 17

1. Research into interference tends to be in lab conditions based around artificial tasks, such as learning lists of words. The setup of the studies means that they are designed to cause the maximum amount of interference and thus forgetting. Participants may have to learn one list of words and then learn a second word list 20 minutes later. Recall of a list may then be a few minutes after that. Information would not normally be learnt and recalled like this in real life. This limits the external validity , mundane realism and ecological validity of many interference studies.
2. Interference theory cannot explain all examples of forgetting. There are times when information that is not like other stored information is forgotten. This theory is therefore too simplistic to explain forgetting, which is likely to be a complex phenomenon. Forgetting may need to be considered in a more holistic way( reductionism) , so that there is a comprehensive explanation to why people forget.
3. Tulving and Psotka (1971) gave participants 5 lists of 24 words, each list organised into six categories. The categories were not explicit, but as an example there were 4 animal words next to each, creating an ‘animal’ category. Recall for the first list was about 70% but fell after each additional list to learn, due to interference. However, when the participants were told the names of the categories, recall rose again to about 70%. This shows that interference of memories and thus forgetting can be reduced. This limits the explanatory power of
   the theory.

Question 18

What are three strengths of interference theory?

Answer 18

1. Sleep helps to strengthen memories and make them less vulnerable to interference. Abel and Bauml (2013) found that 12 hours of sleep reduced both proactive and retroactive interference, when compared to a control group who remained awake for 12 hours. This has practical applications. For example, students could be encouraged to get enough sleep to aid recall of information. Furthermore, it could be used to help manage memory conditions such as dementia, to reduce the likelihood of interference impacting memory recall.
2. There is research support for interference theory as an explanation of forgetting. Baddeley and Hitch
   (1977) wanted to see if interference was a better explanation for forgetting than the passage of time. They got participants who had played a varying number of rugby games to remember as many teams they had played against as possible. It was found that forgetting was due to the number of games played, rather than how much time had passed between games. Baddeley and Hitch concluded that this was a result of retroactive interference, as the learning of new information (new team names) interfered with the old information (earlier team names). This shows that interference theory is a valid explanation of forgetting in a real-life situation.
3. Schmidt et al., (2000) wanted to look at the influence of retroactive interference upon the memory of street names learned during childhood. They randomly selected 700 names from a database of 1700 former students at a Dutch elementary school. The ages ranged from 11-79 years. The participants were given a map of the neighborhood where they had gone to school with all 48 street names replaced with numbers. They were asked to recall as many as possible. Other relevant details were asked in a questionnaire, such as, how many times they had moved house etc. Schmidt et al., found that there was a positive association between the number of times individuals had moved, and the number of street names forgotten. This suggests that learning new patterns of street names when moving house makes recalling older patterns of street names harder to do. This provides evidence that retroactive interference does seem to be able to explain forgetting in some real-life situations.