Explanations for Forgetting: Retrieval Failure

EXPLANATIONS FOR FORGETTING: RETRIEVAL FAILURE

Description

- Encoding specificty principle means material present at encoding will also be present at retrieval (Tulving & Thomson)

- When a category and word was learnt together, free recall was 40% and cued recall was 60% (Tulving & Pearlstone)

- Some cues are not meaningfully linked at encoding, but also act as clues

- Context-dependent forgetting. Abernethy found recall was best with the same instructor in the same room. Moreover, Baddeley & Godden claim recall is best when the initial context (land or water) matched the recall environment.

- State-dependent forgetting. Goodwin et al claim recall is best when the initial state (drunk or sober) matched the state at recall.

Evaluation

- High validity as there's wealth of supp0rting research evidence in both lab and natural environments

- Real-word application for revising and can be applied to the cognitive interview

- Cues don't always work as they aren't useful when learning meaningful materials, according to Smith & Vela

Further Evaluation

- Encoding specificity is circular as it isn't a causal relationship according to Nairne, and Baddeley claims it also cannot be tested

- Retrieval failure can explain interference effects, and this is the more important explanation of forgetting