retrieval failure of forgetting

Question 1

what is retrieval failure?

Answer 1

• the idea that forgetting is not due to loss of memory. rather an inability to access the memory.
• it is an issue of accessibility rather than availability
• retrieval, therefore, depends on using cues

Question 2

what are the two types of retrieval?

Answer 2

external cues- context dependant (environment)

internal cues- state dependant (emotionsl state)

Question 3

what is the encoding specificity principle and who was it proposed by?

Answer 3

Tulving and Thomson (1973)

• memory is at its best when information present at the time of coding is also available at time or retrieval.
• a cue does not have to be right but the close it is to the original item, the more useful it is
• cues that have been implicitly or explicitly linked at a time or encoding can have meaningful links.

Question 4

what did Godden and Baddeley do in 1975 to support external cues.

Answer 4

carried out a field experiment
-deep sea divers either learnt word lists on land or underwater
-recall of words was then tested in the same or different context
-those who learnt and recalled in different contexts did not perform as well as those who’d learnt and recalled n the same context.
conclusion- demonstrates the importance of external cues influencing our ability to recall.

Question 5

what did Goodwin do in 1969 to support internal cues

Answer 5

aim- aimed to investigate how the mental state you are in at the time of learning can also acts as a cue.
procedure- asked male volunteers to remember a list of words when they were either drunk or sober.
-participants were asked to recall the list after 24 hours when some were sober and some were drunk again.
findings- sober learners were not as good at drunk recall however drunk learners were better at drunk recall (better recall when in the same state for both learning and recall)
conclusion- being in the same state for learning and recall acts as a cue; thus supporting the idea of internal cues.

Question 6

what is some supporting evidence for retrieval failure?

Answer 6

real world application-
used to improve recall of information in exams.
Aberthy’s research suggests that you ought to revise in the same room you sit the exam. Smith showed that even just thinking about the room where you did the learning (mental reinstatement) was as effective as actually being in the room at the time of retrieval.

Question 7

what is a piece of challenging evidence for retrieval failure?

Answer 7

retrieval cues do not always work.
information being learnt is related to a lot more than just cues. the outshining hypothesis suggests that a cue’s effectiveness is reduced by the presence of better cues. according to smith and vela in 2001, contexts effects are largely eliminated when learning meaningful material. retrieval cues are thus not irrelevant to memory and can explain everyday forgetting but not everything.