Retrieval Failiure (due to absence of cues)

Question 1

what is retrieval failure?

Answer 1

-Retrieval failure occurs when people forget information due to insufficient cues.
-When information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall it may appear as if you have forgotten the information but, in fact, this is due to retrieval failure - not being able to access memories that are there.

Question 2

what did Tulving and Thompson (1973) suggest?

Answer 2

Tulving and Thomson (1973) suggest if cues are not present at the time of recall that were there during encoding, then the information is not accessible and therefore appears ‘forgotten’, (known as Encoding Speciality principle)—> coding and retrieval stage (for you to be useful)

Question 3

What are the two types of retrieval failure?

Answer 3

-Context dependent forgetting (absence of external cues)
-State dependent forgetting (absence of internal cues(

Question 4

What is context dependent getting?

Answer 4

Cues may be external in the absence of this can lead to context dependent forgetting

Question 5

why examples of external cues?

Answer 5

-Associated words
-Places
-Smells

Question 6

What did Gooden and Baddeley (1975) do?

Answer 6

Carried out a study of deep sea divers working underwater. In this situation it is crucial - a matter of life or death - for divers to remember instructions given before diving.

Question 7

what is the procedure of Gooden and baddeley’s experiment?

Answer 7

• In this study the 18 divers learned a list of 36 unrelated words/either undera land on land and then were asked to free recall the words either underwater or on land.
• The word lists were recorded on tape and specialist equipment was used to play the words underwater.
• This created 4 conditions.
• Each diver took part in all conditions making it a repeated measures design.

Question 8

What were the conditions of G and B’s experiment?

Answer 8

Learn on Land - Recall on Land (LL) ( Learn underwater - Recall on Land (UL)
Learn on Land -Recall underwater (LU)
Learn underwater - Recall underwater (UU)

Question 9

What were the findings of G and B’s experiment?

Answer 9

-LL-13.5
LU- 8.5
UL-8.6
UU-11.4

Question 10

what were the written findings for G and B’s experiment?

Answer 10

In two of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall were the SAME and gave better free recall (mean free-recall in condition: LL - 13.5 and condition 4: UU - 11.4), whereas in the conditions where the environmental context of learning and the context of recall were DIFFERENT, accurate free recall was much worse (mean free-recall in conditions 2: UL - 8.5 and condition3: LU - 8.6). The external cues available were different from the ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure.

Question 11

what is the conclusion for G and B’s experiment?

Answer 11

This suggests that memory is worse when the context is inconsistent.
• When information is encoded in memory associated contexts are recorded at the same time, e.g. places. If these contexts are DIFFERENT at the time of retrieval, then it may appear that you have forgotten the information.
However, this is retrieval failure where you are not able to access memories that are there.

Question 12

What is State dependent forgetting?

Answer 12

Cues may be internal cues, and the absence of these can lead to state dependent forgetting

Question 13

what are examples of internal cues?

Answer 13

-mood
-emotional state
-physiological state

Question 14

Who carried out research into the effects of state dependent forgetting?

Answer 14

Goodwin et al (1969)

Question 15

What was the procedure of Goodwin et al?

Answer 15

•Male volunteers were required to learn a list of words when they were either drunk or sober.
• Those in the ‘drunk’ condition were three times over the UK drink driving limit.
• Participants were asked to recall lists of words after 24 hours. Some were sober, but others had to get drunk again.
(lacks mundane realism)

Question 16

What were the findings of goodwin?

Answer 16

The recall scores suggest that information learned when drunk is more available when asked to recall in the same state later on i.e. drunk again later on.

Question 17

What was the conclusion for goodwin?

Answer 17

This suggests that memory is better when the internal mental state is consistent for both learning and recall.
If the mental states are DIFFERENT at the time of learning and retrieval, then it may appear that the material has been forgotten. This is retrieval failure where you are not able to access memories that are there.