Retrieval Failure

Question 1

What is State-dependent Forgetting and who investigated it?

Answer 1

• Carter or Cassaday’s study of hay-fever medication
• physical or psychological state different from when learning took place
• gave pps antihistamines and asked them to recall a list of words either on antihistamines or not after having leaned them not on antihistamines or on antihistamines
• mismatch condition recall was much worse

Question 2

What is Retrieval Failure?

Answer 2

• When memories available but not accessible

Question 3

What is Encoding-specificity Principle?

Answer 3

• A pattern discovered in Retrieval Failure by Tulving, he noticed that a cue (if it is successful) must be present at both encoding and during retrieval

Question 4

What are the two types of cues?

Answer 4

Meaningful - e.g letter ‘STM’ trigger retrieval of more information on the STM
Meaningless - other cues also encoded at time of learning (external context and internal state)

Question 5

What is a cue?

Answer 5

• A trigger that enables access to memories

Question 6

What is Context-dependent forgetting and who investigated it?

Answer 6

• Godden and Badeley’s deep-sea divers - recall a list of word in ocean/land after having learned them on land/ocean in environment different from where learning took place
• accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions

Question 7

How can we used the concept of Cues in the real-world?

Answer 7

• Real world application. Baddeleys suggest we can use cues in our everyday lives. e.g being in one room and then going to get something from a different one then forgetting what u went to get and then remembering on returning to first room. Worth making an effort to recall the environment in which u first learned it

Question 8

What research supports the retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting?

Answer 8

• Research support. Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday, show that lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context/state dependent forgetting. Real-world situations as well as in lab studies.

Question 9

What is a weakness of the research centered around Retrieval Failure as an explanation for forgetting?

Answer 9

• Baddeley (1997) Context effects are limited as contexts are not as different as underwater and on land in everyday life. One room to another may not result in much forgetting. May not be a very good explanation