RETRIEVAL FAILURE

• Why does retrieval failure occur?

  due to the lack of cues, when information is placed into the memory associated cues are stored at the same time. If the cues arent available at time of retrieval then you might not be able to access the memories that are there
• What is the encoding specificity principle?

  Memory retrieval is most effective when the conditions at the time of learning are the same as the conditions at the time of retrieval.
• what are the three types of cues?

  organisation cues

  context cues

  state cues
• what are organisation cues?

  disorganised information is more likely to be forgotten
• what are context cues?

  context dependent forgetting happens when the environment during recall is different
• what are state cues?

  occurs when your mood or psychological state during recall is different from the state you are in when learning. so no internal cues to jog memories
• How did Godden and Baddeley investigate retrieval failure?

  They investigates the effect of environmental cues on recall.

  deep sea divers learned word lists and were asked to recall them.

  There were four conditions
• what were the 4 conditions in Godden and Baddeleys experiment?


  Condition 1 - learn on land and recall on land

  Condition 2 - learn on land and recall underwater

  Condition 3 - Learn underwater and recall underwater

  Condition 4 - Learn underwater and recall on land
• What were the findings of Godden and Baddeleys research?

  accurate recall was 40% lower in mismatched conditions than in matched conditions
• what was the conclusion of Godden and Badeleys research?

  retrieval failure as due to absence of encoded context cues at the time of recall - material was not accessible
• How did Goodwin et al (1969) investigate state cues?

  had 48 medical students in 4 different conditions. They were given cognitive tasks on day one and on day two they were tested to see how state cues affect memory
• what were the 4 conditions in Goodwins research?

  condition 1 - sober on both days

  condition 2 - intoxicated on both days

  condition 3 - intoxicated on day 1, sober on day 2

  condition 4 - sober on day 1, intoxicated on day 2
• what were the findings of Goodwin et als experiment?

  Condition 1 - perfect score

  condition 2 - only a few mistakes

  condition 3 - lots of errors

  condition 4 - loads of errors made
• strength of retrieval cues

  real world application

  people often go into another room and forget what they were going to do but they remember when they go back into the original room