what is retrieval failure

Question 1

what is the encoding specificity principle

Answer 1

Cues at the time of encoding must be the same at the time of retrieval of forgetting may occur this is the encoding specificity principle

Question 2

what is context dependent forgetting

Answer 2

Context dependent retrieval failure when the external environment and the cues from the environment aren’t present at the time of retrieval as the same as the ones at the time of learning consequently forgetting may occur as there are no cues to trigger memory

Question 3

evidence for context dependent forgetting

Answer 3

Godden and Baddeley they did a diver tak where there were two conditions condition one - learning recalling in the same environment and condition two was learning and recalling in different items, the findings where that when asked to free recall the recall was better in participants who learned and recalled in the environment this shows how a lack of cues may lad to forgetting as there are no cues to trigger memory.

Question 4

state dependant retrieval failure

Answer 4

the physiological and mental state and the cues from within aren’t present at the time of retrieval as the same as the ones at the time of learning consequently forgetting may occur as there are no cues to trigger memory

Question 5

what is the evidence for state dependent forgetting

Answer 5

Goodwin et al decided to do research to test this he asked a group of participants to get drunk and and asked them to recall a list of words they were then asked to free recall the lsit of words half either in the same state being drunk or being sober. Recall was better in the participants in the same state as the previous night this shows how internal cues help trigger memory thus leads to better recall and if cues aren’t present it may lead to state dependent forgetting

Question 6

strength of retrieval failure

Answer 6

One strength is that state dependent forgetting happens in a wide variety of settings as there has been a lot of researching retrieval failure for example anecdotal experiments field experiments and lab experiments and natural experiments this is a strength as it shows it happens in many different conditions eyensick states that forgetting most occurs due to retrieval failure as there is an absence of cues that rigger memory thus as retrieval failure happens at a range of context it increase the validity of retrieval failure as explanation of forgetting

Question 7

another strength of retrieval failure

Answer 7

One strength is that teachers have developed practical application to prepare stuents for exams whe n students are in the exam school they should try to remebr being taugh the content this is as equally good as actually being in the lesson being taught again as it allows mental reinstatement thus there are mental cues which trigger the students memory thus they should also remember the layout of the classroom and the environment so the context and environment present cues this is a strength as having this knowledge allows students to come up with tips to prevent forgetting and be able to succeed

Question 8

one weakness in context dependent forgetting

Answer 8

One weakness is that the experiments are highly artificial and such extreme context differences don’t occur in everyday situation yet forgetting still occurs for example during a lesson and during an exam the context and environment is very similar and there re cues in the exam hall which trigger a memory response to remember learning yet forgetting still occurs thus there must be another explanation for forgetting in such instances thus the explanation for memory is incomplete