Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure.

Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure.

1. Encoding specificity principle: Tulving coined this term and said that if a cue is going to be helpful it has to be present at encoding and present at retrieval. If cues at encoding and retrieval are diif. or absent you'll forget. Some cues are encoded in meaningful way, e.g, stm leads recall of all sorts of info about stm.

2. context-dependant: recall depends on external cue like weather. State-dependant: recall depends on internal cue, emotions like feeling upset.

3. research STF. Carter and cassaday gave antihistamine drugs to pps. This creates an internal psysiological state diff from normal state. PPs learnt and recall words in 4 conditions. learn on drug, recall on drug. learn when not on drug, recall when not on drug. laern on drug, recall when not on drug. Learn without drug, recall on drug. Findings: in condition where there was mismatch between internal state at learning and recall performance on memory test was worse. So when there's an absent of cues then there's more forgetting.