Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure ಥ_ಥ

What is retrieval failure caused by?

Sufficient cues.

• when information is stored in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time. if these cues are not available at the time of recall, it may 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 there.

What is the encoding specificity principle. (hint: give the two types of dependent forgetting.)

Tulving (1983) reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern to the findings.

• he summarised this pattern in what he called the encoding specificity principle (ESP).

• This states that if a cue (if it is going to be helpful) has to be both:

1. present at encoding (when we learnt the material)

2. present at retrieval (when we are recalling the material)

• it follows from this, that if the cues available at encoding and retreival are different (or if cues are entirely absent at retrieval), there will be some forgetting.

two examples of non meaningful cues:

Context dependant forgetting: recall depends on external cue

state-dependant forgetting: recall depends on internal cue

Outline the procedure researching context dependant forgetting, performed by Godden and Baddeley (1975)

studied deep sea divers who work underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater. The divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words underwater or on land.

• learn on land - recall on land

• learn on land - recall underwater

• learn underwater recall on land

• learn underwater - recall underwater

in two of these conditions, the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas in the other two they did not.

• accurate recall was 32% lower in the non-matching conditions, the external cues available at learning were different from the ones available at recall.

• and this led to retrieval failure.

Outline the procedure researching state dependant forgetting, performed by Carter and Cassaday (1998)

Gave antihistamine drugs to their participants.

• the antihistamines had a mild sedative effect, making the participants slightly drowsy. This creates an internal physiological state, different from the usual state of being awake and alert.

• the participants had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and then recall the information, again creating four conditions:

1. learn on drug - recall on drug

2. learn on drug - recall when not on drug

3. learn not on drug - recall when on drug

4. learn not on drug - recall not on drug

• 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 the cues are absent (for example, you are drowsy when recalling information but had been alert learning it) then there is more forgetting.

Evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting.

Research support

Impressive range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation, this evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab.

counterpoint:

Baddeley argues that context effects are actually not very strong, especially in everyday life.

different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen. for example, it would be very hard to find a more different environment to land than being underwater. in contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are generally not different enough.

• this means that retrieval failure due to a lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting.