forgetting - retrieval failure

• what is a cue?

  trigger of information that lets us access memory
• what is retrieval failure due to absence of cues?

  we forget because of insufficient cues, when information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time. if these cues are not available at the time of recall it due to retrieval failure
• describe the encoding specificity principle

  tulving found the ESP stating if a cue is going to be helpful it must be present at encoding (1) and retrieval (2), some cues are encoded in a meaningful way e.g STM means short term memory which makes you remember everything about it and also using mneumonics however some cues are unmeaningful :

  context-dependant forgetting = recall depends on external cue (e.g weather or place)

  state-dependant forgetting = recall depends on internal cue (e.g moods)
• describe research on context dependant forgetting

  procedure = baddeley and godden studied deep sea divers who worked underwater to work on land to see if it would help or hinder their work underwater, they recalled a list of words either on land or water

  findings and conclusion = making 4 conditions, only 2 succeded as the enviroment matched, accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions because of the mismatch between context cues available at recall and learning
• describe research on state dependant forgetting

  procedure = carter and cassaday gave antihistamine drugs making them slightly drowsy creating an internal physiological state different from the normal state of being awake and alert, they learnt the list of words and it created 4 conditions

  findings and conclusion = when learned on drugs (state) and recalled on drugs they performed better than those on mismatched conditions (learned on drugs but recall without drugs)
• give one strength of retrieval cues

  strength = real world application, retrieval cues help overcome forgetting, baddeley recommended that cues are worth paying attention to remember things e.g going back to the same room to recall
• give another strength and its counterpoint on retrieval failure

  strength = supported by other research e.g carter and cassaday, godden and baddeley, memory researchers eysenk and keane argue that retrieval failure could be the main reason of forgetting in LTM showing that it occurs in real life but also controlled conditions in a lab
• give another strength and its counterpoint on retieval failure (2)

  counterpoint = baddeley argues that context effects are not strong, different contexts have to be different before an effect is seen e.g its hard to find an eviroment as different from land as underwater (G&B) however learning something in a room and recall in different room lacks forgetting as theres not a general difference meaning that retrieval failure doesnt really explain everyday forgetting
• give a limitation of retrieval failure

  limitation = 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 - p's had to say whether they recognised a word read to them on the list instead of retrieving it, when recognition was tested there was no context forgetting effect, all conditions had the same performance, suggesting that RF is a limited explanation for forgetting bc it only applies when a person has to recall info rather than recognising it
• give another strength of retrieval failure

  strength = usefu purpose as its used in the police force in cognitive interview to ask people to recall events leading up to such as context (weather) and state (mood) but also other peoples POV