Retrieval Failure Flashcards
What is Retrieval Failure?
Forgetting that occurs due to insufficient cues being available to retrieve the information
What are the 2 types of Retrieval Failure?
- Context-Dependent Forgetting
- State-Dependent Forgetting
What are 3 types of cues and an example of each?
- Meaningful cues- cues directly related to the information (eg. rhymes)
- Context cues- external cues (eg. location)
- State Cues- internal cues (eg. being drunk)
Describe Godden & Baddeley’s Context Dependent Diver Experiment
- A group of divers were instructed to learn a word list either on land or in the water, and then later recall it either on land or in the water
- Recall was significantly lower in mismatched conditions (e.g. when the diver learnt the word list on land, but recalled it underwater)
By what percentage was recall lower in mismatched conditions Godden & Baddeley’s Diver Experiment?
40%
What were Abnerthy’s Findings in terms of Context-Dependent Forgetting?
When uni students were tested in the same room where they were taught by the same instructor whom taught them, recall was better
Describe Carter & Cassady’s Antihistamine Experiment into State-Dependent Forgetting
- Administered antihistamine, which is a mild sedative, to participants
- There were 4 Conditions
- Participants were then instructed to learnt lists of words and phrases either after having taken or not having taken antihistamine, and then to recall after having taken or not having taken it.
- Recall was significantly lower in mismatched states (e.g. when participants learnt the information after having taken antihistamine, but hadn’t taken it before recall)
What were Goodwin’s findings regarding drunkenness and State-Dependent Forgetting?
Participants whom misplaced items whilst drunk, and couldn’t find them sober, could later find them when in the same state of drunkenness
What is the Encoding Specificity Principle?
In order to be useful, a cue must be present at both learning and retrieval. If not, some forgetting will occur.
What are cues?
A stimulus that triggers the recall of specific information stored in memory
Why did Baddeley criticise Context-Dependent Forgetting as an explanation?
He argued that context cue effects aren’t very strong in everyday life and that supporting studies potentially overstate their effect on recall (e.g. land and sea are wildly different, but two differen’t classrooms aren’t)
How does Retrieval Failure as an explanation for forgetting have good explanatory power?
It can be applied to everyday instances of forgetting (e.g. “Why did I go into the kitchen?)
Why has the Encoding Specificity Principle been criticised?
It is unfalsifiable, as you cannot prove nor disprove whether a cue was actually encoded or not- and therefore whether it aided or hindered recall
