retrieval failure

retrieval failure

1. retrieval failure theory

   • when information is put into the memory a cue associated with it is also coded
     • if cues arent avaliable at the time of recall the information is seen as forgotten
   • memory is available but not accessible if a sufficient cue isn't present

2. encoding specificity principle

   • Tulving 1983 reviewed research into retrieval failure
   • a cue - helps us recall information but has to be present at encoding and retrieval
     • if cues present at encoding and retrieval are different it will lead to forgetting
   • other cues also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way= context and state dependent forgetting
     • some cues are linked to material in a meaningful way such as mnemonic techniques

3. context-dependent forgetting Godden and Baddley 1975

   • divers learnt a list of words either on land or in waters and were asked to recall on land or in water
   • the accurate recall was 40% lower on non-matching conditions
     • external cues were different

4. state-dependent forgetting carter and Cassaday 1988

   • the participant had to learn a list of words whilst taking an antihistamine and recall without or vice versa or learn on and recall on and learn off and recall off
   • cues are different at different states/ internal psychological states

5. evaluation

   • supporting evidence
     • Michael Eysenck 2010 suggested that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting from LTM. this is a strength as supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation and evidence shows retrieval failure occurs in real-life situations as well as lab studies and experiments
   • questioning context effects
     • Baddley 1997 suggest context effects aren't very strong as different contexts have to be very different for an effect to be seen. learning something in one room and recalling it in another doesn't lead to much forgetting. this is a limitation as real-life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues doesn't explain much forgetting
   • recall vs recognition
     • Godden and Baddley 1980- replicate the underwater experiment but the participants had to say whether they recognised the words. when recognition was tested with no the context-dependent effect the results were the same in all conditions this is a limitation as to the presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in a certain way
   • problems with encoding specificity principle
     • it isn't testable- in experiments recall is successful which assumes the word ah bene encoded with a cue at the time of learning and if word recall is unsuccessful it is assumed it wasn't encoded with a cue. however, these are just assumptions and there is no way of individually establishing whether the cue has been encoded