RETRIEVAL FAILURE

• WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF RETRIEVAL FAILURE?

  context-dependent forgetting, state-dependent forgetting
• WHAT IS RETRIEVAL FAILURE?

  when information is available but unable to be recalled due to the absence of appropriate cues
• CONTEXT-DEPENDENT FORGETTING?

  when items cannot be retrieved as the external environment is different when recalling to when memory was encoded
• STATE-DEPENDENT FORGETTING?

  when items cannot be retrieved as the internal environment is different when recalling to when the memory was encoded
• WHAT PRINCIPLE RELATES TO RETRIEVAL FAILURE?

  encoding specificity principle
• WHAT IS THE ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE?

  recall is best when cues at time of retrieval are same as those at the time of encoding
• STRENGTHS OF RETRIEVAL FAILURE AS AN EXPLANATION?

  • research support
  • real world application
• WEAKNESSES OF RETRIEVAL FAILURE AS AN EXPLANATION?

  cannot establish cause and effect
• WHAT RESEARCH IS THERE TO SUPPORT CONTEXT-DEPENDENT FORGETTING?

  Godden and Baddeley

  • forgetting was higher when participants encoded a word list underwater and recalled it on land (vice versa)
  • compared to those recalling in the same context
  • absent cues from external context cause us to forget
• WHAT RESEARCH IS THERE TO SUPPORT STATE-DEPENDENT FORGETTING?

  Carter and Cassaday

  • forgetting was higher when participants encoded a word list on anti-histamines and recalled it not on anti-histamines (vice versa)
  • compared to those recalling it in the same state
  • absent cues from our internal state cause us to forget
• HOW DOES RETRIEVAL FAILURE AS AN EXPLANATION HAVE REAL WORLD APPLICATION?

  • shows how cues can help in real life situations
  • first step of a cognitive interview aims to tackle concept of retrieval failure
  • witnesses asked to mentally recreate context they were in when they witnessed the crime
  • explanation is useful as it helped improve accuracy of eyewitness testimonies
• WHY CAN WE NOT ESTABLISH CAUSE AND EFFECT FOR RETRIEVAL FAILURE AS AN EXPLANATION FOR FORGETTING?

  • encoding specificity principle cannot be independently tested
  • no way of knowing if divers (G & B) used water/ land as a cue
  • cannot establish cause and effect relationship between absence of cues and forgetting