retrieval failure

Retrieval failure

A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.

Cue

A 'trigger' of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.

For example, cues may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkenness).

Encoding specificity principle

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. This states that if a cue is to help us to recall information it has to be present at encoding (when we learn the material) and at retrieval (when we are recalling it). It follows from this that if the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different (or if cues are entirely absent at retrieval) there will be some forgetting.

Some cues are linked to the material-to-be-remembered in a meaningful way. For example, the cue 'STM' may lead you to recall all sorts of information about short-term memory. Such cues are used in many mnemonic techniques

Context dependent forgetting

Duncan Godden and Alan Baddeley (1975) carried out a really interesting study of deep-sea divers working underwater. in this situation it's crucial - a matter of life and death - for divers to remember instructions given before diving about their work underwater.

Procedure In this study the divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land. This therefore created four conditions:

• Learn on land - recall on land

• Learn underwater - recall on land.

• Learn on land - recall underwater.

• Learn underwater - recall underwater.

Findings In two of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas in the other two they did not. Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions. The external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this led to retrieval failure.

State dependent forgetting

Procedure Sara Carter and Helen Cassaday (1998) gave anti-histamine drugs (for treating hay fever) to their participants. The anti-histamines had a mild sedative effect making the participants slightly drowsy. This creates an internal physiological state different from the 'normal' 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:

• Learn on drug - recall when on it.

• Learn not on drug - recall when on it.

• Learn on it - recall when not on it. • Learn not on it - recall when not on it.

Findings 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