Explanation for forgetting: retrieval failure

• What is retrieval failure?

  Failure to find information due to insufficient cues
• What two studies developed the encoding specificity principle?

  • Tulving and Thompson (1973)
  • Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)
• What was found in Tulving and Thompson (1973)?

  • Information provided at the time of encoding, is present at the time of retrieval
  • Cue does not have to be exactly right but the closer the more useful
• What was the procedures of Tulving and Pearlstone(1966)?

  • Participants learnt 48 words belonging to 12 categories
  • Two recall conditions participants had to either free recall or cued recall
• What were the findings of Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)

  • Cued recall= 60% words recalled
  • Free recall= 40% words recalled
• What are the conclusions of Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)

  Cues can be explicitly or implicitly encoded at the time of learning
• What studies were done to develop context dependant forgetting?

  • Ethel Abernethy (1940)​
  • Godden and Baddeley (1975)
• What were the procedures of Ethel Abernathy(1940)?

  • Students were tested weekly before a course started.
  • Four experimental conditions:

  1. Same room, same instructor
  2. Same room, different instructor
  3. Different room, same instructor
  4. Different room, different instructor
• What were the findings of Ethel Abernathy (1940)?

  • Students tested in the same room with the same instructor performed best.
  • Familiar contexts acted as memory cues.
  • Superior students were least affected by changes, while weaker students were more impacted.
• What conclusion can be taken from Ethel Abernathy (1940)?

  • Context-dependent cues (like a familiar room and instructor) help improve memory recall
• What were the procedures of Godden and Baddeley (1975)?

  • Scuba divers learned a set of words either on land or underwater.
  • They were later tested in either the same or different environment, creating four conditions:

  1. Learn on land – Recall on land
  2. Learn on land – Recall underwater
  3. Learn underwater – Recall underwater
  4. Learn underwater – Recall on land
• What were the findings of Godden and Baddeley(1975)?


  Best recall occurred when learning and recall environments matched
• What conclusions can be taken from Godden and Baddeley (1975)?


  Memory retrieval is improved when the learning and recall environments are the same
• What study developed state dependent forgetting?

  Goodwin et al (1969)
• What was Goodwin et al (1969) procedures?

  • Learned a list of words while either sober or drunk
  • After 24 hours, they were asked to recall the words.
  • Some participants were sober at recall, while others were drunk again.
• What were the findings of Goodwin et al (1969)?


  Recall was poorest when the learning and recall states were mismatched (e.g., learning drunk but recalling sober).
• What research support is there for retrieval cues?

  • Studies such as, Tulving & Pearlstone, (1966) and Abernethy, 1940 show that retrieval cues improve memory recall.
  • The studies have high ecological validity
• Real world application?

  • Abernathy (1940)
  • Smith (1979) found that imagining the learning environment can act as a retrieval cue
• Why may retrieval cues not always work?

  Context effects may be eliminated when meaningful material is learned (Smith & Vela, 2001).
• What is the danger of circulatory?

  • Baddeley (1997) argues that the encoding specificity principle (ESP) is difficult to test because it is circular
  • A cue helps retrieve a memory, assumed it was encoded—but if recall fails, it is assumed that the cue wasn’t encoded, making the theory circular.
• How does retrieval failure explain interference effects?

  • Tulving & Psotka (1971) found that apparent interference effects could actually be due to retrieval failure
  • Their study shows that information is there but cannot be retrieved