Retrieval failure - AO1 Flashcards
What is retrieval failure?
A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the neccesary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
What is the encoding specificity principle?
Tulving (1983) reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovereda consistent pattern to his findings. He summarised his findings as the ESP
This states that the cue has to be both:
* Present at encoding
* Present at retrieval
If the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different then there will be some forgetting
Some cues are encoded at the time of learning in a meaningful way and some in a non meaningful (state and context)
What is context-dependent forgetting?
Recall depends on external cue (weather/place)
What is state-dependent forgetting?
Recall depends on internal cue (feeling upset or being drunk)
What is the procedure of research on context dependent forgetting?
Godden & Baddeley (1975): Studied deep sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater
Divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words underwater or on land
This created four conditions:
Learn on land - recall on land
Learn on land - recall underwater
Learn underwater - recall on land
Learn underwater - recall underwater
What are the findings of research on context dependent forgetting?
In two of these conditions the environemental contexts of learning and recall matched whereas in the other they did not.
Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions
What are the conclusions of research on context dependent forgetting?
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 procedure of research on state dependent forgetting?
Carter and Cassady (1998): Gave antihistamine drugs to PPs
It had a mild sedative effect making PPs slightly drowsy
This creates an internal physiological state different from the “normal” state of being awake
The PPs had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and then recall the information again creating four conditions:
Learn on drug - recall when on drug
Learn on drug - recall when not on drug
Learn when not on drug - recall when not on drug
Learn when not on drug - recall when on drug
What is the findings of research on state dependent forgetting?
In the conditions where there was a msimatch between internal and external state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse
