Retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting Flashcards
what are the 2 types of cue dependent forgetting
- Context = external environmental cues. can occur when the environment during recall is different from the environment you were in when you were learning.
- State = internal cues e.g. if you were upset learning a topic, you need to be upset when retrieving the topic. occurs when your mood or physiological state during recall is different from the mood you were in when you were learning.
Tulving AO1
- Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure. He noticed a pattern of forgetting which he coined the ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE. Memory is most effective if information that was present at encoding is also available at time of retrieval.
- The reason we forget is due to insufficient cues.
- When we encode a new memory we also store information that occurred around it (cues), (E.g. the way we felt or the place we were in).
- If we cannot remember or recall it, it could be because we are not in a similar situation to when the memory was originally stored.
- It is not because we have forgotten it, it’s just that we don’t have the cues to help us to access the memory.
What was the Tulving and Pearlstone Retrieval Cues Study (AO3)
- Participants had to learn 48 words, belonging to 12 categories (e.g. fruits, countries, etc.)
- Each word was presented as ‘category + word’. (e.g. Fruit – apple, Fruit – orange, etc.)
- There were two different recall conditions.
- Group 1: Participants recall as many words as they can (free recall).
- Group 2: Participants were given cues (the name of the category) and have to recall as many words as they can (cued recall).
what were the findings of the Tulving and Pearlstone Retrieval Cues Study
- Free recall condition – 40% of words recalled on average
- Cued recall condition – 60% of words recalled on average
what was the conclusion of the Tulving and Pearlstone Retrieval Cues Study
This suggests memory is most effective if information that was present at time of encoding is also available at time of retrieval.
who studied Context-dependent forgetting
Godden + Baddeley
what was the aim of Godden + Baddeley’s Context-dependent forgetting study
- investigated the effect of environment on recall.
what was the procedure of Godden + Baddeley’s Context-dependent forgetting study
- 18 divers from a diving club were asked to learn lists of 36 unrelated words of two or three syllables
4 conditions : - Learn on beach recall on beach
- Learn on beach recall under water
- Learn under water recall on beach
- Learn under water recall under water
what were the results of Godden + Baddeley’s Context-dependent forgetting study
- Learn on beach recall on beach = 13.5
- Learn on beach recall under water = 8.6
- Learn under water recall on beach = 8.6
- Learn under water recall under water = 11.4
what was the conclusion of Godden + Baddeley’s Context-dependent forgetting study
- Participants decreased in accuracy of recall when the participant’s original state didn’t match their state during encoding and retrieval.
- If the context matches, recall is higher + memory is more efficient
- Supports the theory of retrieval failure
who studied state dependent forgetting
Goodwin et al
Carter + Cassidy
what was the procedure of Goodwin et al’s state dependent forgetting study
- forty-eight male medical students participated on day 1 in a training session and on day 2 in a testing. They were randomly assigned to four groups:
- Group1: (SS) was sober on both days.
- Group 2: (AA) was intoxicated both days.
- Group 3: (AS) was intoxicated on day 1 and sober on day 2.
- Group 4: (SA) was sober on day 1 and intoxicated on day 2.
- The intoxicated groups had 111 mg/100 ml alcohol in their blood. They all showed signs of intoxication.
- The Participants had to perform 4 tests: - an avoidance task
- a verbal rote-learning task
- a word-association test
- a picture recognition task.
what were the results of Goodwin et al’s state dependent forgetting study
- More errors were made on day 2 in the AS and SA condition than in the AA or SS conditions, however this was not the case for the picture recognition test.
- The SS participants performed best in all tasks.
what was the conclusion of Goodwin et al’s state dependent forgetting study
- this supports the state-dependent memory theory as the performance was best in the participants who were sober or intoxicated on both days.
what was the aim of Carter and Cassidy’s state dependent forgetting study
investigated the effect of your physiological state on recall.
what was the procedure of Carter and Cassidy’s state dependent forgetting study
- Gave anti-histamine drugs or a placebo to participants. As anti-histamines have a mild side-effect of causing drowsiness.
- Participants had to learn words in 4 conditions.
- Learn on drug recall on drug
- Learn not on drug recall on drug
- Learn on drug recall not on drug
- Learn not on drug recall not on drug
what were the results of Carter and Cassidy’s state dependent forgetting study
In the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse.
what was the conclusion of Carter and Cassidy’s state dependent forgetting study
When cues are absent (eg drowsy when recalling but sober when learning) then there is more forgetting.
what are the AO3 points for research evidence
- There is a wealth of research that has been conducted that show support for the process of retrieval failure in forgetting.
- This includes lab, field, and natural experiments.
- For example studies by Goddden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassidy.
- This is a strength of retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting because supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation.
- This is even more the case when evidence comes from real-life situations we well as lab studies.
what are the AO3 points for Retrieval failure have useful real-life applications such as studying in schools and recalling evidence in court.
- This is used as a strategy to improve recall in eye-witness memory when the witnesses are asked to describe their mood/emotional state (state-dependent) and also the context i.e. linked events (context dependent) when the incident they have witnessed took place (cognitive interview).
- Abernathy (1940) found that students performed better in tests if the tests took place in the same room as the learning of the material had taken place, and were administered by the same instructor who had taught the information.
extra -ve AO3 - retrieval cues don’t always work
- information we are learning is related to a lot more than just the cues.
- In most of the research on context effects participants are learning word lists but when you are learning, for example, about Milgram’s research or about the multi-store model, you are learning about complex associations that are less easily triggered by single cues.
- This has been called the outshining hypothesis: a cue’s effectiveness is reduced by the presence of better cues.
- According to Smith and Vela (2001) context effects are largely eliminated when learning meaningful material.
I.e. cues don’t explain everything.
extra: -ve AO3 - Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP) is impossible to test because it is circular.
- If a cue aids retrieval then it can be argued that the cue had to be encoded at the same time as the memory for recall to occur. However if recall doesn’t occur then its argued a cue wasn’t encoded in memory.
- Whether the encoding of a cue took place or not is impossible to test therefore we can’t ever fully understand the ESP.
- What came first the cue or the encoding?
