MEMORY - explanations for forgetting : retrieval failure Flashcards
what is a cue?
a ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory.
what is retrieval failure?
a form of forgetting which occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.
what is the encoding specificity principal (ESP)?
Cues must be present at encoding and retrieval. If cues are different at encoding and retrieval, this leads to forgetting.
Cues are linked to the material we had to remember in a meaningful way.
who discovered the ESP?
Tulving (1983)
what is context-depending forgetting?
recall depends on external cue (eg weather, environment)
what is state dependent forgetting?
recall depends on internal cue (emotion,feeling)
explain research on context dependant forgetting by Godden and Baddeley (1975)?
They studied deep sea divers working under water. Divers learnt a list of words on water and land. They recalled on water and land. there were 4 different combinations, eg learn underwater recall underwater
learn on land recall on land
learn underwater recall on land
What were the findings of Godden and Baddeley (1975)?
recalls 40% lower nonmatching conditions.
They concluded external cues available at learning are different from the ones available at recall leading to retrieval failure.
explain research on state dependant forgetting by Carter and Cassaday?
They gave antihistamine drugs to participants. The antihistamine drugs had a mild sedative and made participants drowsy = different internal physiological state.
They learned words on drugs and no drugs. Recalled on drugs and no drugs.
what were the findings of Carter and Cassaday?
Mismatched state and recall = performance was worse.
When cues are absent there is more forgetting.
what are the STRENGTHS of this explanation?
+ REAL WORLD APPLICATION
Cues can help overcome forgetting when we have trouble remembering something. It is probably worth making the effort to record the environment you have learned it first. Baddeley suggests that they are worth paying attention to = research can remind us of strategies we use in real world to improve our recall
+ RESEARCH SUPPORT call retrieval failure explanation for forgetting.
eg eyesenk and keane argue that retrieval failure is the main cause of forgetting in LTM. Evidence from Godden and Baddeley and cater and cassaday increases validity of research.
what are the LIMITATIONS of this explanation?
- baddeley argues that research evidence is not really strong especially in real life. It would be hard to find an environment different from land as underwater = retrieval failure due to contextual cues may not actually explain much.
- Godden and baddeley replicated the experiment but participants had to recognise the word read to them. When recognition was tested there was no context depending effect = retrieval failure is a limited explanation.
-there is no way to independently establish whether or not the cue was encoded = decreases the validity.
