6) Theories of Forgetting- Retrieval Failure

Briefly describe what is meant by retrieval failure?

When forgetting occurs due to a lack of sufficient cues.

• Cues are stored at the same time as the memory.

What is meant by cues in relation to forgetting?

The reason that people may forget could be down to insufficient cues.

• When a memory is initially encoded, associated cues are stored at the same time.

• If these cues are then not available at the time of recall, it may appear as if you’ve forgotten the information.

  • It is still there but you cannot access it due to retrieval failure.

• Cues can be meaningful or indirectly linked.

• They can be internal or external.

Outline the encoding specificity principle?

TULVING AND THOMAS:

Memory is most effective when information that was present at the time of coding is also present at the time of retrieval.

• If the cues that were present at the time of encoding aren’t present at the time of retrieval, forgetting will occur.

Name two types of retrieval failure?

• State dependant forgetting (internal)

• Context dependant forgetting (external)

Describe state dependant forgetting?

(internal)

When the emotional state that an individual is in, serves as an aid to memory recall.

• There is a risk that state dependant forgetting will occur when the same psychological state is not experienced.

  • This is often the case with alcohol intoxication and the absence of accurate memories when sober.

Describe context dependant forgetting?

(external)

When recall depends on external cues.

• Such as the weather, location, sights, sounds etc…

Outline one research study that investigated context-dependant forgetting?

GODDEN AND BADDELEY (1975):

Studied deep sea divers and asked participants to learn and recall words on land and underwater.

Four conditions:

• Learnt on land- recall on land

• Learnt underwater- recall on land

• Learnt on land- recall underwater

• Learnt underwater- recall underwater

They found that accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions.

• Concluded that recall was lower due to the cues available at the time of learning being different to the cues available at the time of recall.

Outline one research study that investigated state dependant forgetting?

CARTER AND CASSADAY (1988):

Gave participants anti-histamines which had a mild sedative effect.

• This creates a different internal physiological state.

Participants had to learn lists of words and passages of prose in one of 4 conditions.

Conditions:

1) Learn on drug- recall on drug

2) Learn not on drug- recall on drug

3) Learn on drug- recall not on drug

4) Learn not on drug- recall not on drug

Recall was significantly worse in the mismatched conditions.

• Suggests that when the cues are absent, forgetting occurs.

Evaluate the strengths of research into retrieval failure?

STRENGTH: REAL WORLD APPLICATION

Retrieval cues can help overcome forgetting in everyday situations.

• Knowledge gained about cue dependant forgetting has been used by police in the reconstruction of crimes and in cognitive interviewing techniques.

  • The aim is to jog the memory of witnesses by recreating the context and/or scene either physically or mentally.

• E.G: Crime watch (a tv show) produced reconstructions and broadcasted them live.

  • Led to the conviction of Danielle Jone’s uncle following her murder, by allowing viewers to recall memories using the context.

Since then it has had a positive impact on countless criminal cases and has resulted in many criminals being brought to justice.

Furthermore, it is important to note that increasing eye witness accuracy has a positive impact on the economy.

• Greater chance of police prosecuting the right criminal from the offset.

• Results in a reduction of wasted money on wrongful arrests, compensation pay outs for this and court hearings.

  • Saves the judicial system money.

• Also, has moral benefits to ensure people not wrongly imprisoned.

STRENGTH: RESEARCH SUPPORT

There is a huge evidence base supporting retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting.

• Godden and Baddeley

• Carter and Cassaday

( explain one of these studies)

Evaluate one limitation of research into retrieval failure?

COUNTERPOINT: TO RESEARCH SUPPORT

BADDELEY ET AL:

Argues that context effects are not actually very strong, especially in real life.

• He suggests that different contexts would have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen.

  • It is hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater is.

• Thus limiting the generalisability of the theory to the real world.