memory 6 Flashcards
What is meant by retrieval failure?
Forgetting occurs due to a lack of sufficient cues. Cues are stored at the same time as the memory.
Outline the Encoding Specificity Principle.
Introduced by Tulving. Cues help us to retrieve data. Cues that were present at encoding have to be there at retrieval. If a cue is absent then there will be some forgetting. Cues can be both meaningful and not.
Outline one research study that investigated context-dependent forgetting.
Godden & Baddeley. On land and underwater. 4 conditions. Learned on land = best recall on land & vice versa.
Baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are actually not strong, especially in real life. Explain this, and what it means for the theory.
Studies use contexts that are very different. In real life contexts are never going to be that different (change of rooms maybe). Studies don’t tell us about how memory works in the real world.
Outline one research study that investigated state-dependent forgetting.
Carter & Cassaday. Antihistamines & not. 4 conditions. Learned with antihistamines = best recall with antihistamines and vice versa
Why is a range of supporting evidence a strength of the retrieval failure theory?
Shows that the theory is valid and provides credibility.
Explain the problems with the Encoding Specificity Principle.
Theoretical. Can’t provide proof - untestable concepts. Built on assumptions - if recall is good, we assume cue is present. Not falsifiable = unscientific.
A criticism of the theory of retrieval failure is the effect may be related to the kind of memory being tested. Explain this.
Baddeley (1980) repeated the underwater study. Used a recognition test instead of a recall test - ppts had to say if they recognised a word read to them from the list. There was no context-dependent effect. Cues only affect memory when it is tested in a certain way.
