Explanations of Forgetting- Retrieval Failure

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  • Created by: AliceTori
  • Created on: 14-05-17 12:06

Retrieval Failure

The reason people forget information may be because of 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 make it 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 available.

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Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP)

This is the idea that if a cue is to help us recall information then it has to be present at encoding (when we learn something) and at retrieval (when we are recalling it).

If then the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different, or even absent, there will be some forgetting.

Some cues are linked to the material-to-be-remembered in a meaningful way.

For example, the cue 'STM' may lead you to recall information about the short-term memory.

Such cues are used in mnemonic techniques.

Other cues are also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meanigful way.

Two examples of this in context are context-dependant forgetting (external cues) and state-dependant forgetting (internal cues).

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Context-Dependent Forgetting- Procedure

Godden and Baddeley (1975) studied deep-sea divers to show context-dependent forgetting.

The divers had to learn a list of words either underwater or on land and were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land.

This therefore created four conditions:

1) Learn on land, recall on land

2) Learn on land, recall underwater

3) Learn underwater, recall on land

4) Learn underwater, recall underwater

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Context-Dependent Forgetting- Findings

In two of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall were the same, in the other two they were different.

Accurate recall was 40% lower in when the learning and recall environments were different.

The external cues available at learning were different from ones at recall and this lead to retrieval failure.

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State-Dependent Forgetting- Procedure

Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave their participants anti-histamine drugs.

This made the participants drowsy which is an internal physiological state that is different from the 'normal' state of being awake and alert.

The participants then had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and the recall the information.

There were four conditions:

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

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State-Dependent Forgetting- Findings

In the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse.

So when cues are absent there is more forgetting.

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Research Evidence

STRENGTH

There is a lot of research evidence to support this explanation of forgetting.

For example, Godden and Baddeley's research with deep sea divers.

In fact, Eysenck (2010) goes so far as to agree that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting in LTM.

Supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation, especially when conducted in real-life conditions/situations as well as the highly controlled conditions of the lab.

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Useful everyday applications

STRENGTH

There is context-related cues have useful everyday applications.

People often report these experiences: they were upstairs and went downstairs to get an item but forgot what they came downstairs for, but when they go back upstairs they remember again.

The application is that when we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to revisit the environement in which you first experienced it.

This is the basic principle of the cognitive interview, a method of getting eyewitnesses to recall more information about crimes by using the technique known as 'context reinstatement'.

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Not very strong in real-life

LIMITATION

Context effects are actually not very strong in real-life.

Baddeley (1966) argued that different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen (e.g. on land versus underwater).

Learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough.

So the real-life application of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don't actually explain much forgetting.

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Only in certain ways

LIMITATION

Context effects only occur when memory is tested in certain ways.

Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of recall.

There was no context-dependent effect.

Performance was the same in all four conditions whether the environmental contexts for earning and recall matched or not.

This limit retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting because the presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test recall rather than recognition.

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Key terms

Retrieval Failure- a form of forgetting. It occurs when we do not have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Cue- a 'trigger' of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be directly linked by being encoding at the time of learning. For example, cues may be external (environmental) or internal (mood).

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