retrieval failure

• Describe the study by tulving and pearlstone

  • Pps had to learn 48 words belonging to 12 categories, presented as a category + word eg fruit- orange
  • Two recall conditions- free recall (recall as many words as you can remember) and cued recall (recall words with the same categorical cues that were present during encoding)
  • Free recall- 40% words accurately recalled
  • Cued recall- 60% words accurately recalled
• what is the encoding specificity principle?

  • devised by Tulving and Thompson
  • memory is more enhanced/recall is more accurate when a specific cue is stronger/closer related to the material attempting to be recalled
• what does the principle of retrieval failure state?

  memory is most effective if information present at the time of encoding is also present at the time of retrieval
• describe a study investigating context-dependent forgetting

  Abernethy:

  • group of students to be tested before a certain course began
  • tested each week
  • either in same room, with same/different teacher, or different room, with same/different teacher.
  • Those tested in the same room by the same instructor performed best
  • superior students least affected by the changes, inferior the most
• describe a study investigating state-dependent forgetting

  • Goodwin et al
  • pps to learn word lists either when drunk or sober
  • same pps recalled words later when they had become sober, but some asked to become drunk again and recall the words
  • those who were drunk during learning and recall or were sober during learning and recall performed best
• evaluation of retrieval cues?

  • 😊a lot of research support- Tulving and Pearlstone, Goodwin et al, Abernethy. High internal validity
  • ☹some memories are too complex- therefore can't be easily triggered by cues, cues can be too simplistic. Smith and Vela- context effects are eliminated when learning meaningful material
  • ☹other explanations for forgetting- interference
  • 😊real-world application- Abernethy's research suggests you must revise in the room you take exams in, which may be unrealistic but imagination can be used to achieve this. Can use cues in revision and in schools, helpful in the cognitive interview