explanations of forgetting: retrieval failure

• what is retrieval failure

  a form of forgetting, occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access the memory
• what is a cue

  a trigger of info that allows us to access a memory
• what is the encoding specificity principle

  endel tulving 1983 reviewed research into retrieval failure and summaries the pattern he found in the encoding specificity principle.
• when does a cue have to be present at?

  encoding and retrieval
• what are state dependent cues

  internal cues

  to do with the state you’re in eg alcohol
• what are context dependent cues

  external cues

  related to the environment you’re in
• who studied context dependent forgetting

  godden and baddeley 1975
• what was the aim of context dependent forgetting

  to see if people who learn and are tested in the same environment will recall more than those who learn and are tested in different environments
• what is the procedure of context dependent forgetting

  ppts were deep sea divers and were divided into 4 groups. all groups were given lists of words to learn.
• what did group 1 do?

  learnt underwater and recalled underwater
• what did group 2 do?

  learnt underwater and recalled on a beaxh
• what did group 3 do?

  learnt on a beach and recalled on a beach
• what did group 4 do?

  learnt on the beach and recalled underwater
• what was the procedure of state dependent forgetting

  48 medical male students were placed into either a drunk condition condition
• what happened in the drunk condition

  given same amount of alcohol and given info to learn
• what were the findings within state dependent forgetting

  recall was best when state matched
• what is a strength of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

  impressive range of evidence supporting this explanation of forgetting (eysenck)
• what is a weakness of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

  context are actually not very strong in real life (baddeley)
• what is a weakness of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

  context effects only occur when tested in certain ways. (godden and baddeley)
• what is a limitation of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

  encoding specificity principle cannot be tested
• what is a strength of retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting

  context related cues have useful everyday applications