Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure Flashcards
What is retrieval failure?
A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
Describe the encoding specificity principle?
Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern to the findings.
He summarised this pattern in what he called the encoding specifically principle.
This states that a cue has to be both present at coding, present at retrieval. It follows from this that is the cue available at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some more forgetting.
Some cues are encoded at the time of learning in a meaningful way. For example the cue STM may lead you to recall all sorts of information about short term memory . Such cues are used in many mnemonic techniques.
Other cues are also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way. We will consider 2 examples of non meaningful cues:
- Context dependent forgetting - Recall depends on external cue ( weather or a place)
- State dependent forgetting- Recall depends on internal cue (feeling upset, being drunk)
What is the research on context dependent forgetting?
Procedure- Godden and Baddeley studied deep sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater.
The divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land. This created 4 conditions:
- Learn on land- recall on land
- Learn on land- recall underwater
- Learn underwater- recall on land
- Learn underwater- recall underwater.
Findings and conclusions- In 2 of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas in the other 2 they did not. Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non matching conditions. They concluded that the external cues available at learning were different from the ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure.
What is the research on state dependent forgetting?
Procedure- Researchers gave antihistamine drugs for treating hay fever to their participants. The antihistamine had mild sedative effect making the participants slightly drowsy. This creates an internal physiological state different from the normal state of being awake and alert. The participants had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and then recall the information again creating 4 conditions:
-Learn on drug- recall when on drug
-Learn on drug- recall when not on drug
-Learn not on drug- recall when on drug
Learn not on drug- recall when not on drug
Findings= In the conditions where there a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall performance on the memory test was significantly worse. So when the cues are absent for example when you are drowsy when recalling information but been alert learning it, then there is more forgetting.
Why is real world application a strength?
One strength is that retrieval cues can help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations.
Although cues may nit have a very strong effort on forgetting. Baddeley suggests they are still worth paying attention to. For instance we have probably all had the experience of being in one room and thinking ‘i must go and get something from another room.’ You go to the other room only to forget what it was you wanted. When we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you have learned it first.
This shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in real world to improve our recall.
Why is research support an strength?
Another strength is an impressive range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation.
The studies by Godden and Baddeley et al are just 2 examples because they show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context dependent and state dependent forgetting in everyday life.
Memory researchers argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM. This evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab.
What is a counterpoint for that?
Baddeley argues that context effects are actually not very strong especially in everyday life. Different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen.
For example it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater. In contrast learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because theses environments are generally not different enough.
this means that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting
Why is recall versus recognition a limitation?
One limitation is that context effects may depend substantially on the type of memory being tested.
Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall- participants had to say whether they recognized a word read to them from a list instead of retrieving it for themselves.
When recognition was tested there was no context dependent effect performance was the same in all four conditions.
This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognizes it
