Retrieval failure

• Encoding specificity principle - Endel Tulving (1983)


  This states that if a cue is to be useful it has to be both; present at encoding (when the material is learned) and present at retrieval (when we recall it).
• What are the two main examples of non-meaningful cues?

  • Context-dependant forgetting - recall depends on external cue (e.g. weather or a place)
  • State-dependant forgetting - recall depends on internal cue (e.g. on drugs, drunk, upset)
• Research on context-dependant forgetting

  Godden and Baddeley's study on deep-sea divers examined the impact of training location on memory recall. Divers learned word lists either underwater or on land, then recalled them in matching or non-matching environments. Recall accuracy was significantly lower (40%) in non-matching conditions, leading to the conclusion that differing external cues during learning and recall resulted in retrieval failure.
• Research on state-dependent forgetting

  Sara Carter and Helen Cassaday (1998) administered antihistamine drugs to participants, inducing mild sedation. This created different internal states for learning and recall. They found that mismatches in these states led to significantly worse performance on memory tests, indicating increased forgetting when the internal state during recall differed from the state during learning.
• What is one example of real-world application of retrieval cues?

  Walking in a room and forgetting why you came in that room. When you go out to the previous room, you remember again as the first room is the cue.