Memory: 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 a memory

Question 2

What is the ‘encoding specificity principle’

Answer 2

• created by Tulving
• states that if a cue is to help us recall info, it must be present at both encoding and retrieval of the material
• so, if cues at encoding and retrieval are different, there will be some forgetting

Question 3

Outline ‘context dependant forgetting’

Answer 3

• (external cues)
• godden and baddeley - divers learn a list of words either underwater or on land and were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land
• in 2 of these conditions, the environmental context of learning and recall matched
• where the environmental contexts did not match, recall was 40% lower
• external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall = retrieval failure

Question 4

Outline ‘state dependant forgetting’

Answer 4

• (internal cues)
• carter and cassaday - gave antihistamine drugs to ppts, which had a mild sedative effect making ppts drowsy which creates an internal state different from the ‘normal state’ of being awake and alert
• ppts had to learn lists of words/passages of prose and recall either on the drug of off it
• when there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, recall was worse

Question 5

What are the 3 evaluation points for retrieval failure

Answer 5

• supporting research evidence
• context effects don’t actually explain much forgetting
• context effects may be related to the kind of memory being tested

Question 6

Outline ‘supporting research evidence’ as an evaluation point for retrieval failure

Answer 6

• lots of research support (e.g. Godden and baddeley)
• Eysenck suggested retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM
• supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation

Question 7

Outline ‘ context effects don’t actually explain much forgetting’ as an evaluation point for retrieval failure

Answer 7

• baddeley argues that context effects are not actually very strong - especially in real life
• different contexts have to actually be VERY different before an effect is seen
• e.g. learning something in one room and recalling it in another will not result in much forgetting
• so real life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don’t actually explain much forgetting

Question 8

Outline ‘context effect may be relayed to the KIND of memory being tested’ as an evaluation point for retrieval failure

Answer 8

• godden and baddeley replicated their underwater study but used a recognition test instead of recall
• when recognition was tested there was no context dependant effect, performance was the same in all v4 conditions
• so the presence/absence of cues only affects memory when you test it a certain way