Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure

What is retrieval failure?

• Form of forgetting when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory

• If the cues are not available at the time of recall, then you will not be able to access the memories that are there.

• The memory is available but not accessible due to retrieval failure.

What is a cue?

• Trigger of info that allows us to access a memory

• Could be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning

Who created the encoding specificity principle?

Endel Tulving

What is the encoding specificity principle?

If it is to be helpful, then a cue must be:

• Present at coding (when a material is learnt)

• Present at retrieval (when a material is recalled)

• If the cues that are available at encoding and retrieval are different or absent at retrieval, there will be forgetting

• Some cues are encoded at learning in a meaningful way e.g. the cue STM would lead you to recall all sorts of info about STM

What is context and state dependant forgetting?

Other cues may be encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way. E.g.

• Context dependant forgetting - recall depends on an external cue e.g. weather or place

• State dependant forgetting - recall depends on an internal cue e.g. feeling upset or being drunk

What did Godden and Baddeley investigate?

Context dependant forgetting

What was the procedure of Godden and Baddeley’s study on context dependant forgetting?

They studied deep sea divers who work underwater, to see if training on land helped or hindered their work underwater.

• Learnt a list of words either underwater or on land

• Asked to recall them either underwater or on land

• This created 4 conditions where in 2 of them the environmental context of learning and recall matched, whereas in the other 2 they were different:

• Learn on land - recall on land (matching condition)

• Learn on land - recall underwater (non-matching)

• Learn underwater - recall on land (non-matching)

• Learn underwater - recall underwater (matching)

What were the 4 conditions in Godden and Baddeley’s study?

• Learn on land - recall on land (matching condition)

• Learn on land - recall underwater (non-matching)

• Learn underwater - recall on land (non-matching)

• Learn underwater - recall underwater (matching)

What were the findings of Godden and Baddeley’s study?

Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions

Thus, external cues at learning were different from the ones available at recall and this led to retrieval failure

What is a strength of retrieval failure? (Real world application)

Retrieval cues can help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations

Although cues may not have a very strong effect on forgetting, Baddeley suggests they are still worth paying attention to. E.g. Going into a room to get something and forgetting what you needed to get. Then going back to the first room and now remembering.

So when we have trouble remembering something, we recall the environment in which we learned it first.

This shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall.

What is another strength of retrieval failure? (Research support)

Vast range of research that supports the retrieval failure explanation

Support from Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday studies show that lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context and state dependant forgetting in everyday life.

Memory researchers Eysenck and Keane argue that retrieval failure is the reason for forgetting from LTM

This evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real world situations as well as in highly controlled conditions of the lab.

What is a limitation of retrieval failure? (Recall vs recognition)

Context effects may depend substantially on the TYPE of memory being tested.

Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall - participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from a list, instead of retrieving it themselves.

When recognition was tested, there was NO context dependent forgetting, performance was the same in all 4 conditions.

This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall info rather than recognise it.