Retrieval failure

• Retrieval failure = a form of forgetting that occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory (the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided).
• Encoding specificity principle (ESP) = a cue has to be both present at encoding (when we learn the material) and present at retrieval (when we are recalling it).
• Tulving reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern. He summarised this pattern in what he called the encoding specificity principle.
• If the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different there will be some forgetting.
• Some cues are encoded at learning in a meaningful way. Other cues are encoded in a non-meaningful way.
• Non-meaningful cues:

  • context-dependent forgetting
  • state-dependent forgetting
• Context-dependent forgetting = recall depends on external cue (e.g. weather or a place)
• State-dependent forgetting = recall depends on internal cue (e.g. feeling upset, being drunk)
• Godden and Baddeley researched context-dependent forgetting by studying deep-sea divers to see if training on land hindered their work underwater.
• The divers learnt a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land.

  This creates four conditions:

  • learn on land-recall on land
  • learn on land- recall underwater
  • learn underwater- recall on land
  • learn underwater- recall underwater
• Godden and Baddeley:

  Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions. They concluded that the external cues available at learning and recall were different and this led to retrieval failure.
• Carter and Cassidy researched state-dependent forgetting. They have antihistamine drugs to their participants. The antihistamines have a mild sedative effect. This creates an internal physiological state different from the 'normal' state of being awake and alert.
• Carter and Cassidy:

  The participants had to learn a list of words and then recall the information again creating four conditions:

  • learn on drug- recall on drug
  • learn on drug- recall not on drug
  • learn not on drug- recall on drug
  • learn not on drug- recall not on drug
• Carter and Cassidy:

  Performance on the memory test was significantly worse in the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall. So when the cues are absent then there is more forgetting.
• A strength is that retrieval cues can help overcome some forgetting in everyday situations. Although cues may not have a very strong effect on forgetting. Baddeley suggests they are still worth playing attention to. When we have trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to recall the environment in which you learned it first. This shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall.
• The studies by Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassidy are just two examples of the research that support the retrieval failure explanation. Memory researchers, Eysenck and Keane, argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM. This evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in there highly controlled conditions of a lab.
• Baddeley argues that context effects are actually not very strong, especially in everyday life. Different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen. In contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are generally not different enough. This means that retrieval failure due to a lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting.
• 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 instead of retrieving it themselves. When recognition was tested there was no context-dependent effect, performance was the same in all 4 conditions. This suggests retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it.