Forgetting: Retrieval Failure

• Retrieval failure

  What is a cue?

  = A trigger of information that allows us to access a memory e.g. external (environmental context) or internal (mood).

  Retrieval failure: an explanation of forgetting based on the idea that we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.
• Retrieval failure

  When info is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time.

  If these cues are not available at the time of recall, you might not be able to access memories that are actually there.
• The encoding specificity principle (ESP)

  Tulving (1983) reviewed research and discovered that if a cue is to help us recall information, it needs to be present at encoding (when we learn the material) and at retrieval (when we recall the material).

  What happens if the cues we available at encoding and retrieval are different?

  Forgetting occurs
• Retrieval failure

  Certain triggers (cues) are encoded in memory at the time of learning. Some cues are linked to the material-to-be-remembered in a meaningful way. 

  Example: For example, the cue “STM” may lead you to recall all sorts of info about short-term memory.

  That is what you should do when you create your revision material/mind maps (use meaningful cues)
• Retrieval failure

  Other cues are encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way.

  Context-dependent forgetting

  = when memory retrieval is dependent on an external/environmental cue (eg. weather/place)

  State-dependent forgetting

  = when memory retrieval is dependent on an internal cue, state of mind (eg. feeling upset, being drunk)
• Key study - Godden and Baddeley

  Research has shown us that context can have a significant impact on the accuracy of recall

  The experiment used 18 scuba divers, and had four conditions: They were asked to learn and then recall a list of 36 words

  Divers had to listen to a list of 36 words either on the beach (dry) or under about 10 feet of water (wet)

  The divers were tested after 4 minutes to see how many words they could recall

  Conclusion:

  This suggests that the context of learning acts as a trigger or cue when trying to remember the information.

  Context enhances the accuracy of memory
• Evaluation (AO3)

  Context effects are not very strong in real life

  Baddeley: different contexts have to be VERY different before an effect can be seen ( ie. on land versus underwater). Learning something in one room and recalling in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because environment are not different enough

  = so real-life application of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don’t actually explain much forgetting
• Evaluation (AO3)

  Not an accurate test of recall

  Another weakness is that pts had to recall the words almost immediately which is a very specific effect

  If we want to generalise the context effect to other situations, then researchers should also allow longer gaps between learning and recall.

  Therefore this research only tell us about a very specific set on circumstances (short term recall) not memory generally