Retrieval failure evaluation

• STRENGTH

  • evidence to support this explanation of forgetting
  • Godden and Baddeley's research with deep sea divers
  • Eysenck goes so far as to argue that retrieval failure is perhaps he main reason for forgetting in LTM
  • increases the validity
• LIMITATION

  • context effects are notstrong in real life
  • Baddeley argued that different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen
  • learning in one room and recalling in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because the environments are not different enough
  • real life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don't actually explain much forgetting
• LIMITATION

  • context effects only occur when memory is tested in certain ways
  • Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment using a recognition test instead of recall
  • no context-dependent effect, performance was the same in all conditions
  • limits retrieval failure because cues only affects memory when you test recall rather than recognition
• LIMITATION

  • ESP cannot be tested
  • when a cue produces successful recall, we assume the cue must have been present at the time of learning
  • if a cue does not result in successful recall, we assume the cue ws not encoded at the time of learning
  • no way to independently establish whether or not the cue has been encoded
• STRENGTH

  • context-related cues have useful everyday applications
  • people often report these experiences
  • when we have trouble remembering something, it is worth revisiting the place where you first experienced it
  • basic principle of the cognitive interview