theories of forgetting-retrieval failure Flashcards
introduction
The reason people may forget could be down to insufficient cues.
When a memory is initially encoded, associated cues are stored at the same time.
• Cues can be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being coded at the time of learning.
encoding specificity principle
Tulving (1983) proposed the encoding specificity principle.
• If a cue is going to be helpful, it must be present when at the time of coding and also present at the time of retrieval.
• If this is not the case, forgetting will occur.
• Information is in fact still there, but we can’t access them.
context dependent forgetting
recall depends on external cues such as the weather, location, sights, sounds etc.
state dependent forgetting
recall depends on internal cues such as the how you are feeling at the time, or experiencing a change in internal state such as being drunk.
Godden and Baddeley
Godden & Baddeley (1975) asked participants to learn and recall words on land and underwater.
• Learn on land - recall on land
• Learn on land - recall underwater
• Learn underwater - recall on land
• Learn underwater - recall underwater
• Found that accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions.
> Concluded that recall was lower due to the cues available at the time of learning being different to those available at time of recall.
Carter and Cassaday
Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave participants antihistamines which had a mild sedative effect.
• Creates a ‘different internal physiological state.
• Participants had to learn lists of words and passages of prose in 1 of 4 conditions.
• Learn on drug - recall on drug
• Learn on drug - recall not on drug
• Learn not on drug - recall on drug
• Learn not on drug - recall not on drug
• Recall was significantly worse in the mismatched conditions.
• Suggests that when the cues are absent, forgetting occurs.
strength-research support
One strength of retrieval failure is that there is an impressive range of research that supports the theory.
• The studies by Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday are just two examples because they show that the lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context and state dependent forgetting in everyday life.
Use one of the studies
counterpoint-research support
A limitation of the research is Baddeley (1997) argues that in order to have an effect contexts need to be vastly different and so CDF may not be as prevalent in everyday life.
• For example, under normal circumstances people may learn something in one room and recalling it in another, which is unlikely to result in too much forgetting because these environments are not different enough.
limitation-recall vs recognition
Another limitation is the context effects may depend on the type of memory being tested.
• Godden and Baddeley - replication of the underwater experiment using a recognition test rather than recall.
• When asked whether they recognised a word from a list there were no context-dependent forgetting.
• Performance was the same in all four conditions.
strength-practical applications
A big strength of research into retrieval failure is its practical applications.
For example in the cognitive interview the police often use what we know about cue-dependent forgetting to help witnesses remember more accurate details about an event. This is done by reconstructing the scene in order to provide both environmental and emotional cues which could jog the witnesses memory.
Furthermore TV progammes such as Crimewatch produce reconstructions and broadcast them live, as was used in the murder of
Danielle Jones in 2001 and ultimately led to a successful conviction.
Therefore, our understanding of cue dependent forgetting has had a positive impact on policing and has contributed to many offenders being brought to justice.
It is also important to note that increasing witness accuracy also has a positive impact on the economy, as there is a greater chance of the police prosecuting the right criminal from the offset. This results in a reduction of wasted money on both wrongful arrests, questioning and court hearings, as well as compensation pay-outs for false convictions, which ultimately saves the criminal justice system money.
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