Explanation for Forgetting: Retrieval Failure Flashcards
(12 cards)
what is retrieval failure due to
absence of cues
retrival failure info
The reason that people forget information is because there are insufficient cues. When information is placed in memory, their associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall, then there is an appearance that the information has been forgotten. This theory suggests that the information is still available for recall, but it cannot be accessed until the correct cues are in place.
Tulving (1983) referred to what he called the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP). This states that a cue is going to help us remember information; it has to be present during encoding (when we learn the information) and at retrieval (recall). If the cues at encoding and retrieval are different then some forgetting will occur. For example, if you revise at college, you are more likely to retrieve the information than you are if you revise at home, as the college will act as a cue for retrieval because the surroundings were there during encoding.
what is ESP
encoding specificity principle
This states that a cue is going to help us remember information; it has to be present during encoding (when we learn the information) and at retrieval (recall). If the cues at encoding and retrieval are different then some forgetting will occur.
what are the two types of forgetting
context dependent forgetting
state-dependent forgetting
what is context dependent forgetting with example
This refers to external cues that are different when encoding information and when retrieving it.
For example, if you revise at college, you are more likely to retrieve the information than you are if you revise at home, as the college will act as a cue for retrieval because the surroundings were there during encoding.
what is state-dependent forgetting with an example
This refers to internal cues (states of awareness) that are different during encoding
information and retrieving it.
An example is encoding information while under the influence of alcohol, only to forget it the next day.
strengths of retrieval failure
supporting evidence: context dependent forgetting - Godden and Baddeley - participants had to learn on land/water and then recall on land/water
land/land - 37% (shows they’re more likely to recall if the cues are same)
water/land - 23%
land/water - 24%
water/water - 32% accuracy (shows they’re more likely to recall if the cues are same)
supporting evidence: state dependent forgetting - Carter and Cassidy making students drowsy, decrease in accuracy when internal state did not match compared to when it did
applications - can be used to save lives of ppl (like soldiers & medics) in threatening and novel situations
weaknesses of retrieval failure
ability to generalise - Baddeley argued that these studies do not reflect real-life and therefore strength should be questioned
AO1 explanation for forgetting: retrieval failure
- What is retrieval failure – a form of forgetting. Occurring when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
- ‘Encoding Specificity Principle’ (Tulving) = “the greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory.”
- Encoding specificity principle, done by Tulving-
1) Context dependent forgetting – recall depends on external cue (weather/place)
Godden and Baddley , 1 sentence procedure, 1 finding (NOT SUPPORTING EVIDENCE BUT THE STUDY THEY WERE BASED ON)
o Divers leant a list of words, either underwater or on land and they were then asked to recall the words either underwater or on land.
o Accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions showing that the external cues available at learning were different from ones available at recall
2) State-dependent forgetting – recall depends on internal cue (feeling upset/being drunk)
Carter + Cassidy, 1 sentence procedure, 1 finding (NOT SUPPORTING EVIDENCE BUT THE STUDY THEY WERE BASED ON)
o Participants took antihistamines which made them drowsy and in an internal physiological state that is different from the ‘normal’ state f being awake + alert and participants had to learn lists of words + passages of prose and then recall the information again
o In conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state of learning and recall –performance on memory test was significantly worse so when cues are absent there is more forgetting
AO3 (1) explanation for forgetting: retrieval failure
- A strength of the explanation of retrieval failure is that it has real world application.
- For example, Smith showed that just thinking of the room where you did the original learning was effective as actually being in the same time of retrieval. For instance, students could use this knowledge to think of the room that they revised in when in an exam to ensure that they can recall all information.
- This is a strength as it generalises to the population, therefore increasing the explanations reliability.
- However some psychologists may argue that it won’t work for everyone as not everyone learns in the same way, therefore we cannot generalise this explanation to the whole world.
- Despite this, it is still a strength as we can utilise the explanation, therefore increasing psychologists trust in it
- thus increasing external validity.
AO3 (2) explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure
- A weakness of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting is that it can be subject to the outshining hypothesis.
- This suggests that a cue’s effectiveness can be reduced by the presence of better cues, compared to the suggestion that any cues present when learning the information will be effective as cues for retrieval. Smith and Vela suggested that context cues are largely eliminated when learning meaningful or complex information.
- This is a weakness as it suggests that not all types of cues are useful when trying to recall information, therefore reducing the credibility of this explanation.
- However, some may argue that context dependant cues do still cause instances of forgetting and therefore retrieval failure is still a valid explanation that can be applied to real life.
- Despite this, the outshining hypothesis suggests that some cues are more effective than others which is therefore a weakness for this explanation.
- Thus decreasing internal validity
AO3 (3) explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure
- A strength of retrieval failure is that it has supporting evidence for state-dependant forgetting.
- For example Goodwin investigated the effect of alcohol on state-dependant forgetting, a study made by Goodwin shows that when people encoded information when drunk, they were more likely to recall that information in the same state.
- This is a strength because his findings show that the theory is accurate. It is also a lab experiment because the variables were controlled.
- However some psychologists may argue that, as it was carried out in a lab setting it is not applicable to real life situations due to the high level of control and therefore lacks external validity.
- Despite this, as the tasks were manipulated we can identify a cause and effect in the investigation making the findings useful.
