Retrieval failure

• What is retrieval failure?

  One reason for forgetting is not because the information has been lost but because they have insufficient cues to locate the memory. The encoding specificity principle states that a cue has to be present at encoding and at retrieval for it to aid memory. If the cues are different at encoding and retrieval or if the cue is absent then forgetting will occur. Some cues are linked in a meaningful way such as in mnemonics and some are encoded at time of learning. There are two non-meaningful cues that can affect recall, which are context-dependent and state-dependent. 
• who researched context dependant forgetting?

  Abernathy (1940) tested students each week in either: Same teaching room and same instructor, Same teaching room and different instructor, Different teaching room and different instructor or different teaching room and same instructor. He found that that those who were tested in the same room with same instructor did best and those who were in non-matching conditions performed worse, demonstrating context- dependent forgetting. 
• who researched state dependant forgetting?

  Hardman (1998) found that those who learned a list of words on a exercise bike could remember them better when exercising again than those who were not exercising. This demonstrates that a mismatch between internal state during learning and recall can cause state-dependent forgetting.
• what are the strengths of retrieval failure?

  support for context dependant by godden and baddeley

  support for state dependant forgetting by Goodwin

  practical applications
• elaborate on the supporting research of context dependant forgetting as a strength of retrieval failure?

  Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated her study but using divers. They learnt a word list either on land or in the water and then recalled either in a matching condition or non matching condition. They found that accurate recall was 40% lower in the non matching condition. Therefore, this supports the idea that external cues in the context were missing when they were in a non matching condition and this caused context-dependent forgetting.
• elaborate on research support for state dependant forgetting as a strength of retrieval failure?

  In support of state-dependent forgetting, there have also been other studies to show how the lack of internal cues can cause forgetting. Goodwin et al. (1969) taught word lists to people when they were drunk and found their recall was better if they recalled the words when in a drunken state again rather than when they were sober. Their intoxication was acting as a cue for their memory and so when they were sober they suffered state-dependent forgetting.
• elaborate on practical applications as a strength of retrival failure?

  A strength of research into retrieval failure is that we can use our understanding of forgetting to develop strategies for improving recall. By matching our context or state learning to later retrieval we can help to improve memory. For instance, if students sat their exams in the same room they learn the information in, they would probably perform better. Therefore, these explanations have good real world value.
• What are the weaknesses of retrieval failure?

  baddeley And goddens study lacked ecological validity

  baddeley and godden replicated their study and found contradicting results.
• elaborate on the lack of ecological validity as a weakness of retrieval failure?

  However, Baddeley (1997) did criticise his own study into the divers as it used contexts that were very different (land and water) which probably wouldn’t happen in real life. Generally, recalling information in different rooms is unlikely to have a big impact on forgetting as they are very similar environments. Therefore, the lack of context cues may not be useful in explaining real life forgetting.
• elaborate on baddeley and goddens contradictory replication as a weakness of retrieval failure?

  Additionally, badelley and godden replicated their study in 1980 but tested recognition instead of recall, and results showed performance was consistent between the 4 groups, implying retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting as it is too simplistic.n