Retrieval Failure: Cue & State Dependent

• What is retrieval failure?

  Occurs without necessary cues to access memory
• What is a cue in memory retrieval?

  A trigger of information to access memory
• What did Tulving (1983) discover about retrieval failure?

  He discovered the encoding specificity principle
• What is the encoding specificity principle?

  A cue must be present at coding and retrieval
• What happens if cues at encoding and retrieval differ?

  There will be some forgetting
• What is context-dependent forgetting?

  Recall depends on external cues
• What is an external cue?

  Stimuli from the environment influencing thoughts
• What is state-dependent forgetting?

  Recall depends on internal cues
• What is an internal cue?

  Patterns of thinking that trigger memory
• What did Godden and Baddeley (1975) study?

  Deep-sea divers' recall underwater vs land
• What were the conditions in Godden and Baddeley's study?

  Divers learned words underwater or on land
• What was the finding of Godden and Baddeley's study?

  Accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions
• What conclusion did Godden and Baddeley reach?

  External cues at learning differed from recall
• What did Carter and Cassaday (1998) research?

  State-dependent forgetting with antihistamine drugs
• What were the conditions in Carter and Cassaday's study?

  Participants learned before or after taking drugs
• What was the finding of Carter and Cassaday's study?

  Accurate recall was worse in non-matching conditions
• What conclusion did Carter and Cassaday reach?

  More forgetting occurs when cues are absent
• What are the real-world applications of retrieval failure research?

  • Cues can aid memory recall
  • Recall environment can enhance memory
  • Strategies can improve real-world recall
• What research supports retrieval failure?

  • Godden & Baddeley (1975) study
  • Carter & Cassaday (1998) study
  • Evidence in real-world situations
• What do Eysenck & Keane (2010) argue about retrieval failure?

  It is the main reason for long-term memory forgetting
• What does Baddeley (1997) argue about context effects?

  Context effects are weak in everyday life
• How do similar environments affect forgetting?

  They are unlikely to cause much forgetting
• What did Godden & Baddeley (1980) find in their recognition test?

  No context-dependent effect was observed
• What does the recognition test suggest about retrieval failure?

  It only applies to recall, not recognition
• What is a strength for Retrieval Failure

  Real World Application

  • Baddeley suggests cues are worth paying attention to despite not having a strong effect on forgetting
  • When we have trouble remembering something, it is probably best to recall the environment in which you learned it
  • This shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in the real world to improve our recall
• What is a strength for Retrieval Failure?

  Research Support

  • Studies by Godden & Baddeley (1975) and Carter & Cassaday (1988) show that a lack of relevant cues at recall can lead to context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting in everyday life
  • Eysenck & Keane (2010) argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from the long term memory
  • This evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-world situations as well as in controlled conditions
• What is a limitation for Retrieval Failure?

  Context Effects

  • Baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are not very strong in especially in everyday life
  • Similar environments are unlikely to result in much forgetting, as compared to completely different environments
  • This means that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much about everyday thinking
• What is a limitation for Retrieval Failure?

  Recall vs Recognition

  • Godden & Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test rather than a recall test
  • When recognition was tested, there was no context-dependent effect and so performance was the same across all 4 conditions
  • This suggests that retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting because it only applies when a person has to recall information rather than recognise it