explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure

• ao1: retrieval failure due to absence of cues

  • Lack of cues can cause retrieval failure:
  • When information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time
  • If the cues are not available at the time of retrieval, you might not access memories that are actually there.
  • Encoding specificity principle (Tulving 1983):
  • Cues help retrieval if the same ones are present both at encoding and at retrieval.
  • If the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different (or if cues are entirely absent) there will be some forgetting.
  • Links between encoded cues and material to-be- remembered:
  • Meaningful links - the cue 'STM' leads you to recall lots of material about short-term memory.
  • Not meaningful links:
  • 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).
• ao1: Godden and Baddeley (1975) Context-dependent forgetting

  PROCEDURE:

  • Deep-sea divers learned word lists and were later asked to recall them:
  • Condition 1. Learn on land - recall on land.
  • Condition 2: Learn on land - recall underwater.
  • Condition 3: Learn underwater - recall on land.
  • Condition 4: Learn underwater - recall underwater.

  FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

  • Accurate recall was 40% lower in conditions 2 and 3 (mismatched contexts) than in conditions 1 and 4 (matched contexts).
  • Retrieval failure was due to absence of encoded context cues at time of recall - material was not accessible (i.e. forgotten).
• ao1: Carter and Cassaday (1998) State-dependent forgetting

  PROCEDURE:

  • Participants learned lists of words/prose and later recalled them:
  • Condition 1: Learn when on drug - recall on drug.
  • Condition 2: Learn when on drug-recall not on drug.
  • Condition 3: Learn when not on drug-recall on drug.
  • Condition 4: Learn when not on drug-recall not on drug.

  FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS:

  • Recall was significantly worse in conditions 2 and 3 (mismatched cues) compared with conditions 1 and 3 (matched cues).
  • When the cues at encoding are absent at retrieval (e.g. you are drowsy when recalling material but had been alert when you learned it) then there is more forgetting.
• ao3: One strength is that retrieval cues have real-world application.


  • People often go to another room to get an item but forget what they wanted, but they remember again when they go back to the original room.
  • 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
• ao3: Another strength is the impressive range of supporting evidence.


  • For example, Godden and Baddeley (divers) and Carter and Cassaday (drugs) show that lack of cues at recall leads to everyday forgetting.
  • In fact, Eysenck and Keane (2010) argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting in LTM.
  • This evidence shows that retrieval failure due to lack of cues occurs in everyday life as well as in highly- controlled labs.
• ao3: COUNTERPOINT TO RANGE IF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

  • Baddeley (1997) argues that different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen (eg. on land versus underwater). Learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough.
  • This means that retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not explain much everyday forgetting.
• ao3: One limitation is that context effects vary in recall and recognition.

  • Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of recall.
  • There was no context- dependent effect. Findings were the same in all four conditions whether the contexts for learning and recall matched or not.
  • 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.