RF A03

• Another strength is research support for state dependent forgetting

  -Carter and Cassaday (1998) found that participants who learned material under the influence of anti-histamines recalled it better when in the same drugged state, supporting state-dependent forgetting.

  -These findings show that matching internal and external cues improves recall, increasing the validity of the theory.
• Another strength is the theory’s real-world application.

  -For example, it can help improve exam performance by encouraging students to mentally recreate the learning environment during tests.

  -This way they are more likely to remember the information This shows the theory has practical value beyond the lab.
• Another criticism is that cues do not always cause retrieval.

  -In many lab studies, the link between the cue and the information being recalled is artificially strong (e.g., learning lists of related words). -In everyday memory, cues may be less obvious or more complex, so the theory may oversimplify forgetting in real-world settings.
• A weakness is that context effects may not be very strong in real life.

  -Godden and Baddeley later repeated their experiment using a recognition test instead of recall, and the context effect disappeared.

  -This suggests that context cues may only matter in certain types of memory tests, limiting the theory’s generalisability.
• A strength is that Retrieval failure has practical applications in improving memory recall in real-life settings.

  -The principle of reinstating context is used in the Cognitive Interview, where witnesses are asked to mentally recreate the crime scene to enhance recall.-This technique has been shown to improve the accuracy and quantity of information retrieved by witnesses, making the theory useful beyond theoretical interest.-This real-world usefulness increases the ecological validity and relevance of retrieval failure theory.