5. Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure

• Retrieval failure - AO1

  - Form of forgetting that occurs when we do not have the necessary cues to access the information. The memory is available but not accessible
• Cue - AO1


  - A trigger for information that allows us to access a memory. - May be meaningful and linked to memory by bring encoded at the time.
• Indirect cues - AO1

  - May be external (environmental context) and internal (mood or drunkenness)
• Encoding specificity principle - AO1

  - The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it
• Tulving et al (1983) and the encoding specificity principle - AO1


  - Reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern tot the finding

  - Called this pattern the encoding specificity principle

  - States that is cue is going to be helpful is needs to

  (1) presentand encoding

  (2) present at retrieval
• Meaningful cues - AO1

  - Mnemonic techniques in STM
• Meaningless cues - AO1

  - Context dependant forgetting - recall depends on external cue (weather or place

  - State dependant forgetting - recall depends on internal cues (upset or drunk)
• Research into context dependant forgetting - AO1

  - Gobbed and Baddley (1975) - studies deep-sea divers who worked underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered their work.

  - Conditions -

  Learn on land - recall on land

  Lean on land - recall underwater

  Learn underwater - recall on land

  Learn underwater - recall underwater

  - Findings -

  Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matched conditions

  - Conclusions -

  External cues at learning were different from the ones a recall
• Research on state dependent forgetting

  - Carter and Cassaday (1998) -

  Gave drugs for treating hay fever to patients

  Had a mild sedative effect making participants slightly drowsy

  Different state from normal

  - Conditions -

  Learn on drug - recall on drug

  Leard on drug recall no on drug

  Learn not on drug - recall on drug

  Learn not on drug - recall not on drug

  - Findings -

  Performed significantly worse when conditions were mismatched compared

  - Conclusions -

  When cues are absent there is more forgetting.
• Real-world application 😊 - AO3

  - Retrieval cues can help overcome forgetting everyday situations

  - Cues may have a very strong effect on forgetting

  - Needing to get something from one room but forgetting when you step into the room only to remember again when you go back

  - Helpful to recall environment which you learned it first

  - Can remind us of strategies to use in our real lives
• Research support 😊 - AO3

  - The previous studies are only some examples for research that support ideaS of retrieval failure

  - Eysenck and Keane (2010) - argue that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting in LTM

  - Large range of research
• CP to real-world application 🙁 - AO3

  - Baddley (1997) - argues that that context effects are not that strong

  - It would be hard to find an environment as different as land and water.

  - Learning something one room and recalling it in a another is unlikely to result in much forgetting - the environments aren't too different

  - May not explain everyday forgetting
• Recall VS recognition - 🙁 - AO3

  - Contexts effects may depend on the type of memory being tested

  - Godden and Baddley (1980) - replicated their underwater study but used recognition test instead of recall

  - They had to say if they recognised a word rather than recalling it

  - Performance was the same

  - Retrieval failure is therefore a limited explanation and only applies when a person has to recall information and not recognise it.