Retrieval failure

Question 1

Why might we forget information?

Answer 1

Insufficient cues - when information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall, it may lead to retrieval failure (not being able to access memories that are there) and appears as if we have forgotten the information.

Question 2

What kind of retrieval failures are there?

Answer 2

Encoding specificity principle (ESP)
Context depending forgetting
State dependent forgetting

Question 3

Who came up with ESP?

Answer 3

Tulving (1983)

Question 4

What does ESP mean?

Answer 4

Recall is better when the cues that were present when we learnt something are also present when we recall it, if the cues are absent or different there will be some forgetting. Some cues are linked to the material to be remembered in a meaningful way e.g. ‘STM’ makes you remember stuff about STM. Others are internal or external (neither meaningful)

Question 5

What is context dependent forgetting?

Answer 5

Recall takes place in a different environment from where the learning took place

Question 6

Who tested context - dependent forgetting?

Answer 6

Godden & Baddeley (1975)

Question 7

What was the procedure of Baddeley and Godden’s study?

Answer 7

Divers learnt a list of words either underwater for on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land, creating 4 conditions

Question 8

What did Godden and Baddeley find?

Answer 8

Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions (e.g land then water or vice versa). The external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this lead to retrieval failure.

Question 9

What does state-dependent forgetting mean?

Answer 9

Physical or psychological state different from when learning took place (internal cues)

Question 10

Who tested state-dependent forgetting?

Answer 10

Carter and Cassaday (1998)

Question 11

What was the procedure of Carter and Cassaday’s study?

Answer 11

Participants were given anti-histamines which causes people to feel drowsy, creating an internal physiological state different from normal ‘awake’ or ‘alert’ state. They learnt a list of words either on the drugs or not then recalled the words either on drugs or not (4 conditions)

Question 12

What did Cassaday and Carter find?

Answer 12

That when the internal states at learning and recall were different, performance on memory test was significantly worse. So when cues are absent (e.g drowsy when recalling info but were alert when learning it) there is more forgetting.

Question 13

What 4 evaluation points are there?

Answer 13

• supporting evidence
• questioning context effects
• recall vs. Recognition
  — real life application