Memory - Retrieval Failure Flashcards
What is retrieval failure ?
A form of forgetting which occurs when you don’t have the necessary cues to access memory the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided, it occurs in LTM.
Who discovered encoding specificity principle?
Endel Tulving (1983)
What is encoding specificity principle?
Tulving discovered a pattern that cue must be present both at encoding and when recalling it. He concluded that is the cues are different it will result in some forgetting.
What are the two types as non-meaningful cues?
- Context-dependent forgetting
- State-dependent forgetting
What is a context-dependent forgetting?
- Recall depending on external cue e.g weather or place
What is state dependent cue?
- It is recall of an internal cue,eg ,feeling sad or feeling drunk
Who did a study on context dependent forgetting?
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
What was Godden and Baddely study ( CDF)?
They made deep sea divers to learn a list o words either underwater or on land and were assed to recap there were four conditions.
- learn on land, recall on land
- learn underwater, recall underwater
- learn on land, recall underwater
- learn underwater,recall on land.
Findings:
Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions-they concluded that the external cues that are available were different from the ones available at recall caused retrieval failure.
Who did research on state dependent forgetting?
Carter and Cassaday (1998)
What was the research on state - dependent forgetting?
- Gave antihistamines to participants. The y had to learn words oneach condition.
Findings :
In conditions were their were a mismatch between conditions the recon on the memory est was significantly worse., so when cues are absent higher chance of forgetting.
What is a strength of this explanation of forgetting?
- Real-life application- this snows the research can show as real life strategies on how to improve our recall.
What is another strength of retrieval failure explanation ?
Research support - Godden and Baddeley, Carter and Cassaday, and Eysenck and Keane have all researched into retrieval failure and produced similar results. This concludes that retrieval failure occurs both inside and outside of a lab, making it valid.
What are the limitations of the research - retrieval failure explanation?
- Countering research support - Baddeley says that context effects are not that strong, as most of the time, contexts do not vary enough (such as between kitchen and bedroom). This shows that retrieval failure may not contribute to much of everyday forgetting
- Recall vs recognition - Godden and Baddeley replicated their experiment testing recognition instead of recall, and found that recognition negates context and performance was identical in every condition. This suggests that retrieval failure only applies to forgetting in recall, not recognition.
-Encoding specificity principle - Tulving says that for a cue to be significant it must be present at both the time of learning and time of recall. It is hard to control whether a cue is encoded or not. This limits the explanation of retrieval failure.
