retrieval failure Flashcards
what is retrieval failure?
An explanation of forgetting of which an individual fails to remember information although it is available due to the absence of cues. Retrieval failure is dependent on cues
what are cues?
Cues serve as reminders, they help to trigger your memory
describe the encoding specificity principle
In 1966 Tulving and Pearlstone conducted a study of which participants were asked to learn a word list consisting of 48 words from 12 categories
The words would be as the following: apple/fruit orange/fruit
Participants were then asked to freely recall the world list or they were given cues based off categories and then they would recall the cues
40% of the participants on average on the free recall state could name the word lists
However, when the cues were given 60% on average could recall the lists
This shows that encoding takes place implicitly or explicitly when learning new information.
what is context dependant forgetting?
Context dependent forgetting links to the location of where the memory took place
For example, Godden and Baddely in 1975 wanted to test the effectiveness of context in relation to cues
They made participants learn a list of words either on land or underwater and made them recall them on 4 different conditions i.e land, underwater, underwater,underwater
They found that participants were able to recall words that were linked to the context of which the learning took place in the same environment
what is state dependant forgetting?
Goodwin et al 1969 conducted a study of which participants learnt words either sober or drunk and after 24 hours made participants learn recall the word list again this time in the same state that they were in - either sober or drunk
They found that those who had been drunk before had recalled words better when they were drunk and those who were sober before recalled words better when they were sober
This opposed those who were sober previously and after the 24 hours became drunk and could not recall the words lists and likewise
State dependent forgetting links to the mental state that you were in.
