Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure

Question 1

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 1

Occurs due to the absence of cues

Question 2

What is a cue?

Answer 2

things that serve as a reminder.

Question 3

What is forgetting in LTM mainly due to?

Answer 3

Retrieval failure ( lack of accessibility rather than availability)

Question 4

What did Tulving and Thomson (1973) propose?

Answer 4

Memory is most effective if information that was present

at encoding is also available at the time of retrieval

Question 5

What does the encoding specificity principle further state?

Answer 5

A cue doesn’t have to be exactly right but closer the cue is to the original item, the more useful it will be

Question 6

What did Tulving and Pearlstone (1966) demonstate?

Answer 6

The value of retrieval cues in a study

Question 7

What study did Tulving and Pearlstone carry out?

Answer 7

Participants had to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories

Question 8

How was each word presented in the Tulving and Pearlstone study?

Answer 8

A category + word

fruit- apple, fruit-orange

Question 9

What where the two recall conditions?

Answer 9

• Free recall ( recall as many words as they could)

- Or given some cues in form if the category names

Question 10

What happened in the free recall condition?

Answer 10

40% of words were recalled on average

Question 11

What happened in the cued recall condition?

Answer 11

60% of words recalled on average

Question 12

What is the Tulving and Pearlstone study giving evidence for?

Answer 12

Cues that have been explicitly or implicity encoded at the time of learning and have a meaningful link to the learning material

Question 13

What is one example of context-dependent forgetting?

Answer 13

Ethel Abernethy (1940) study

Question 14

What did Abernethy arrange?

Answer 14

A group of students to be tested before a certain course began

Question 15

When where the students tested?

Answer 15

Each week

Question 16

What was one condition in which the participant was tested?

Answer 16

In their teaching room by their usual instructor

Others tested by a different instructor in their usual room

Question 17

Another condition in which participants where tested?

Answer 17

In a different room with either the SAME instructor or a DIFFERENT one

Question 18

Which condition performed best?

Answer 18

The students with the same instructor in the same room

Question 19

Why did the condition have the best results?

Answer 19

• Familiar things, acted as memory cues

Question 20

What else did Abernethy find about the students in different conditions?

Answer 20

• Superior students least affected

- Inferior most affected

Question 21

What did Godden and Baddeley’s experiment investigate?

Answer 21

The effects of contextual cues

Question 22

Who did Godden and Baddeley use in their experiment?

Answer 22

Scuba divers

Question 23

what did the participants have to do in Godden and Baddeley’s experiment?

Answer 23

Learn a set of words either on land or underwater

Question 24

How where the participants then tested in Godden and Baddelely’s experiment?

Answer 24

Either on land or underwater depending on how they learnt the word

Question 25

What did the results of Godden and Baddeley’s experiemnt show?

Answer 25

The highest recall occured in the initial context matched the recall environment
( learning on land and recalling on land)

Question 26

What did Goodwin et al. ( 1969) involve his experiment around?

Answer 26

Mental state you are in at the time of learnng can also act as a cue

Question 27

What did Goodwin et al. ( 1969) use as participants in the study?

Answer 27

Male volunteers

Question 28

What did the participants have to do?

Answer 28

Remember a list of words when they were either drunk or sober

Question 29

How much did the participants in the drunk condition drink?

Answer 29

Three times the UK drink driving limit

Question 30

How long until the participants were asked to recall the list they learnt?

Answer 30

24hrs

some were sober but others had to get drunk again

Question 31

What was concluded from Goodwin et al. (1969) experiment?

Answer 31

Information learnt drunk is more available when in the same state later

Question 32

There is a lot of research support.

Answer 32

Plenty of research evidence which has documented the importance of retrieval cues on memory is a real strength of this explanation of forgetting
- Research involves: lab, field and natural experiments
- Tulving & Pearlstone, a lab experiment
- Abernethy, field experiment
Most evidence has relevance to everyday memory experiences, the evidence has high ecological validity

Question 33

Real-world application

Answer 33

Use to improve recall when you need to, for example when you are taking exams
- Abernethy’s research suggests that you ought to revise in the room where you will be taking the exams
- Smith ( 1979) showed that just thinking of the room in which you did the original learning was effective
- Cues in cognitive interview
Showing how research into retrieval can suggest strategies for improving recall in real-world situations, such as taking exams or giving eye witness testimony

Question 34

The danger of circularity

Answer 34

The relationship between encoding cues and later retrieval is a correlation rather than a cause
- Nairne ( 2002) myth of the encoding-retrieval match
- Baddeley (1997) encoding specificity principle is impossible to test because it is circular
- If a stimulus leads to the retrieval of a memory then it must have been encoded in memory
- It is impossible to test if an item has been encoded in memory
According to this criticism, therefore, the cues do not cause retrieval, they are just associated with retrieval