Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure

Question 1

What are the two-types of retrieval failure?

Answer 1

• Context-dependent forgetting,

- State-dependent forgetting.

Question 2

What is the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP)?

Answer 2

If a cue is to help us recall information it has to be present at encoding and at retrieval.

Question 3

Describe Godden and Baddeley’s study (1975) into context-dependant forgetting:

Answer 3

• They asked deep-sea divers to learn a list of words either underwater or on land, they were then asked to recall the words either underwater or on land.
• This created four different context conditions.
• He found that in conditions where the environment was the same during encoding and retrieval accuracy of recall was 40% higher than when they did not match.

Question 4

What is a ‘cue’?

Answer 4

A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory.

Question 5

What is an external cue?

Answer 5

The environmental context.

Question 6

Tulving (1983) created the ESP, in which he says a cue must be present at both encoding and at retrieval, what is retrieval?

Answer 6

When the information is recalled from memory.

Question 7

According the ESP, what will happen if the cues present at encoding and retrieval are different?

Answer 7

Then some forgetting will occur.

Question 8

What were the 4 conditions created in Godden and Baddeley’s experiment (1975):

Answer 8

• Learn on land, recall on land,
• Learn on land, recall in water,
• Learn in water, recall on land,
• Learn in water, recall in water.

Question 9

What is an internal cue?

Answer 9

The state of the individual (drunk, mood etc.)

Question 10

Which type of cue is present for context-dependant forgetting?

Answer 10

External cues (environmental).

Question 11

How did Godden and Baddeley’s findings (1975) support the idea of context-dependant forgetting?

Answer 11

They found that if the environmental cues were matching there was a 40% more likely to be accurate. This supports the idea of context-dependant forgetting as when the external environment is different at encoding and recall, forgetting will occur.

Question 12

Describe the study of Carter and Cassaday (1998) that showed state-dependant forgetting:

Answer 12

• They gave anti-histamine (hay-fever) to their ptps.
• They had a mild sedative effect making the ptps feel drowsy (changing the internal physiological state),
• They had to learn a long list of words and later recall, creating four different conditions,
• They found when there was a mismatch between internal states there was more forgetting and scores were significantly worse.

Question 13

Tulving (1983) created the ESP, in which he says a cue must be present at both encoding and at retrieval, what is encoding?

Answer 13

When the information is committed to the memory.

Question 14

What were the four conditions created by Carter and Cassaday (1998)?

Answer 14

• Learn on drug, recall on drug,
• Learn on drug, recall without drug,
• Learn without drug, recall on drug,
• Learn without drug, recall without drug.

Question 15

Who carried out the main experiment into state-dependant forgetting?

Answer 15

Sara Carter and Helen Cassaday (1998).

Question 16

Which type of cue is present for state-dependant forgetting?

Answer 16

Internal cues (bodily state).

Question 17

How did Carter and Cassaday (1998) demonstrate state-dependant forgetting?

Answer 17

The participants performance on the memory test was significantly worse when there was a mismatch between the internal states.

Question 18

Evaluate the study of Godden and Baddeley (1975):

Answer 18

+ This is evidence for real-life examples of the theory, adding external validity.

• However, the study lack mundane realism.

Question 19

Who carried out the main experiment into context-dependant forgetting?

Answer 19

Duncan Godden and Alan Baddeley (1975).

Question 20

According to Tulving’s ESP, when would forgetting occur?

Answer 20

When the cues at encoding are different to those at retrieval.

Question 21

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Answer 21

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Question 22

Describe Goodwin’s findings (1969):

Answer 22

He found that people who drank a lot often forget where they have put things when they are sober. However, they could recall the locations when they are drunk again.
This supports the idea of state-dependent forgetting.

Question 23

Describe Miles and Hardman’s findings (1998):

Answer 23

They found that people who learned a list of words while exercising on an exercise bike remembered them better when exercising rather than at rest.
This supports the idea of state-dependent forgetting.

Question 24

AO3 - Supporting evidence.

Answer 24

There is much research that supports retrieval failure, the studies of Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday are two examples, these studies increase the validity of an explanation.

Question 25

AO3 - Questioning context effects.

Answer 25

Baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are actually not very strong, especially in real life. Learning in one room and recalling it in another is likely to not result in much forgetting because environments are generally not different enough. This means that real-life applications of retrieval failure don’t actually explain much forgetting.

Question 26

AO3 - Recall versus recognition.

Answer 26

The context effect may be related to the kind of memory test being tested, Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of a recall test. In this variation there was no context-dependant effect; performance was the same in all 4 conditions. This means that cues only effect a certain type of memory.

Question 27

AO3 - Problems with the ESP.

Answer 27

The ESP cannot be tested, this leads to a circular reasoning of its existence. There is no way in an experiment to independently establish whether or not the cue has been encoded or there are extraneous factors.

Question 28

AO3 - Real-life applications.

Answer 28

Alan Baddeley (1997) argued that context effects are not actually strong, especially in real-life. Learning information one room and reciting it in the next is not likely to cause significant forgetting as environments in daily life are relatively similar.