Forgetting - Retrieval failure

Question 1

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 1

A form of forgetting. Occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.

Question 2

What is a cue in terms of memory?

Answer 2

A “trigger” of information that allows us to access a memory. May be external, i.e environmental context, or internal, i.e Mood or degree of drunkenness.

Question 3

State the encoding specificity principle

Answer 3

If a cue is to help us recall information it has to be present at the time of encoding and at retrieval

Question 4

What are two examples of non-meaningful cues?

Answer 4

Context dependent forgetting (external cues)
State dependent forgetting (Internal cues)

Question 5

What is the study using context dependent forgetting? (Godden and Baddeley 1975)

Answer 5

Divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land, they were then asked to recall the list of words either underwater or on land (four conditions)

Question 6

What were the findings of Godden and Baddeley’s study?

Answer 6

Accurate recall was 40% lower when the divers recalled the words in a different environment to which they learned them