Retrieval Failure

• What did Goodwin and Baddeley (1975) find?


  Out of 18 scuba divers asked to recall words after 24 hours learned on land or water, recall was higher amongst 13.5 of those who learned on land and recalled on land, compared to 8.6 of those who learned in land and recalled underwater
• What point does Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) study support?


  That memory is more likely to be recalled in the initial environment it is learned
• Why is Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) study beneficial to context-dependent forgetting?


  Serves as an adequate explanation that has been substantiated by research; may allow psychologist to form nomothetic laws and improve memory recall - high levels of credibility
• What did Smith (1979) find?


  Mental reinstatement acts as a contextual retrieval cue despite not being there physically and improved recall rates in 120 college students who were tested in a different room to where originally taught
• Why is Smith (1979)’s research advantageous?


  Provides scientific credibility in explaining external factors in retrieval failure; allows psychologists to predict how memory is retrieved across different contexts - having real-world applications
• Outline and evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation of forgetting (8 marks)

  AO1: Retrieval failure and ESP

  AO1: Context and state-dependent forgetting

  AO3 (+): Godden and Baddeley (1975)

  AO3 (+): Smith (1979)