Retrieval Failure

Question 1

Encoding Specificity Principle

Answer 1

Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP)

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

Question 2

Types of cues

Answer 2

2 types of cues:

External cues → context-dependent

Internal cues → state-dependent

Question 3

GODDEN AND BADDELEY

Answer 3

Godden and Baddeley

CONTEXT-DEPENDENT FORGETTING

• 4 groups where in 2, environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas in the other 2 they did not

( in water vs out of water - diver experiment)

• Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions
• External cues when encoding the words are different/ not present when retrieving the words

+high external validity as it is everyday situation for divers

-low population validity - only one demographic ( divers )

-reduced internal validity - lack of control over extraneous variables

-artificial stimuli

Question 4

KEY STUDIES

Answer 4

• Godden and Baddeley
• Carter and Cassaday

Question 5

CARTER AND CASSADAY

Answer 5

Carter and Cassaday

STATE-DEPENDENT FORGETTING

• 4 groups where in 2, state contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas in other 2 they did not

(on drugs vs not on drugs)

• mismatched state = worse in memory test as when cues are absent there is more forgetting
• internal cues when encoding information is recalled better when in the same state

Question 6

EVALUATION (3)

Answer 6

EVALUATION

• Lab evidence and real-life evidence
• Questioning context effects
• Recall vs recognition

Question 7

EVAL: Supporting evidence

Answer 7

• SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
  
  • Godden and Baddeley, Carter and Cassaday+increased validity in field experiments (divers) and highly controlled labs (drugs) and high ecological validity

Question 8

EVAL: Question context effects

Answer 8

• QUESTIONING CONTEXT EFFECTS
  
  • Baddeley argues that context effects are not strong in real life .
  different contexts must be very different before an effect is seen. → changing rooms is not generally different enough-real-life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cue don’t actually explain much forgetting

Question 9

EVAL: Recall vs recognition

Answer 9

• RECALL VS RECOGNITION
  
  • Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recallwhen recognition was test there was no context dependent effect - performance was the same for all 4 conditions-retrieval failure may be a limited explanation for forgetting because its only applied during recall not recognition