Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure Flashcards
Retrival failure due to absence of cues
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
People may forget info because of insufficient cues
When info is placed in mem, associated cues are stored at same time
If these cues aren’t avaliable at time of recall, it may appear as if you’ve forgettn info but this is due to retrieval failure
Encoding specificity principle (ESP)
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure & discovered consistent pattern to findings
He summarised this pattern in the ESP
States that a cue has to be both present at encoding & present at retrieval
It follows from this that if cues avaliable at encoding & retrieval are different there will be some forgetting
Some cues are encoded at time of learning in meaningful way
Other cues are encoded at time of learning but not in meaningful way
* Context-dependent forgetting - recall depends on external cue
* State-dependent forgetting - recall depends on internal cue
Godden & Baddeley - context-dependent forgetting
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
Procedure: Studied deep-sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered thei work underwater
They learned list of words either on land or underwater & then recalled them either on land or underwater
4 conditions were:
1. Learn on land - recall on land
2. Learn on land - recall underwater
3. Learn underwater - recall on land
4. Learn underwater - recall underwater
Findings: Accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions
Concluded that external cues avaliable at learning were diff from those available at recall & this led to retrieval failure
Carter & Cassaday - state-dependent forgetting
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
Procedure: gave antihistamine drugs to ppts
Antihistamines had mild sedative effect making ppts slightly drowsy
This creates internal physiological state diff from ‘normal’ state of being awake & alert
Ppts had to learn lists of words & passages of prose & then recall the info
4 conditions were:
1. Learn on drug - recall on drug
2. Learn on drug - recall not on drug
3. Learn not on drug - recall on drug
4. Learn not on drug - recall not on drug
Findings: In non-matching conditions, recall was sigly worse
So when cues are absent there is more forgetting
Real-world application
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
Strength: retrieval cues can help overcome some forgetting in everyday situations
Cues may not have very strong effect on forgetting, Baddeley suggests they’re still worth paying attention to
E.g. everyone has experience of thinking ‘I need to grab X from another room’ but when you go to other room you forget what you needed
But the moment you go back to the 1st room, you remember again
When we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making effort to recall environment it was first learned
Therefore, research can remind us of strats we use to real world to improve recall
Evaluation: Research support
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
Strength: research that supports retrieval failure explanation
Godden & Baddeley and Carter & Cassaday show that lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context- & state-dependent forgetting in everyday life
Eysenck & Keane argue retrieval failure is perhaps main reason for forgetting from LTM
Therefore, evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in highly controlled conditions of the lab
Evaluation: Research support (Counterpoint)
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
Baddeley argues context effects are not very strong, especially in everyday life
DIff contexts have to be very diff before effect is seen
E.g. hard to find an environment as diff from land as underwater (Godden & Baddeley)
In contrast, learning something in one room & recalling in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting as these environments are not diff enough
Therefore, retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting
Evalution: Recall vs recognition
Explanations of forgetting: Retrieval failure
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