RETRIEVAL FAILURE

• Is retrieval failure due to the the absence of interference or cues?

  Cues
• The memory in retrieval failure is available but not accessible unless a cue is provided
• A cue is a stimulus that triggers a memory They may be meaningful or indirectly linked at the time of encoding
• Indirect cues can be internal or external
• Did Baddeley or Tulving summarise the pattern of retrieval failure into the ESP?

  Tulving
• ESP states that a cue must be

  1. Present at encoding (when we learn the material)
  2. Present at retrieval (when we are recalling it)

  • If cues at encoding and retrieval = different 🠮 some forgetting
• Is context-dependent forgetting external or internal?

  External
• Is state-dependent forgetting internal or external?

  Internal
• Godden + Baddeley (1975) CONTEXT-DEPENDENT - STUDY

  • Studied deep sea divers - if land training helped / hindered
  • Learned word list underwater / land then recall
  • 4 conditions
• Godden + Baddeley - C-D FORGETTING - FINDINGS

  • Accuracy ↓ 40 % when conditions ≠ match
  • External cues at encoding ≠ cues at recall
• Carter + Cassady (1998) - STATE-DEPENDENT FORGETTING - STUDY

  • Gave antihistamine drugs to pps
  • Internal physiological state = different from normal state
  • 4 conditions
• Carter + Cassady (1988) - S-D FORGETTING - Findings

  • Conditions where internal state ≠ same at recall/ learning = WORSE performance
• When cues are absent, is there more or less forgetting?

  More
• STRENGTH 1

  P - Real word application - helps beat forgetting - everyday life

  E - Not strong effect but Baddeley - still pay attention to - In room to get item from different room, forget then remember in first room

  L - Research reminds us of strategies use in real world to ↑ recall
• STRENGTH 2 - Research support for RF

  E - Goodwin et al - Medical male students - some were drunk on 1st day (learning) + 2nd (recall) -Eysench + Keane - RF = main reason for LTM forgetting

  L = RF occurs in everyday + controlled lab conditions
• COUNTER - Baddeley argued context effects = not strong - everyday life

  E - Contexts = very different for an effect. Hard to find environment as different from land as underwater - Learning in one room then recalling in another = hard to forget as not that different

  L - RF due lack of contextual cues ≠ explain much about forgetting
• LIMITATION 2 - Recall vs Recognition - Depend on type of memory tested

  E - Goddeon + Baddeley - repeated underwater experiment - recognition test for word list - no retrieval - Performance = the same

  L - RF = limited for forgetting - only applies when person recalls