6. Retrieval failure

• What is retrieval failure?

  • A form of forgetting that occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
  • Cue - a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory. They may be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning
• Retrieval failure due to the absence of cues

  • When information is initially placed in memory; associated cues are stored at the same time
  • If cues are not available at the time of recall, it may appear as if you have forgotten information but this is due to retrieval failure
• Encoding specifity principle

  • Tulving states that a cue (if it is going to be helpful) has to be present at encoding (learning the material) and present at retrieval (when recalling it)
  • If cues available at encoding and retrieval are different or absent altogether, there will be some forgetting
  • Some cues are encoded at the time of learning in a meaningful way eg. STM = short term memory
  • Such cues are used in mnemonic techniques
  • Context-dependent forgetting - recall depends on external cue
  • State-dependent forgetting - recall depends on internal cue
• Context-dependent forgetting

  • Godden and Baddley studied deep sea divers working underwater to see if training on land helped or hindered performance
  • They learned a list of words and recalled them in different conditions
  • Learn on land -> recall on land
  • Learn on land -> recall underwater
  • Learn underwater -> recall on land
  • Learn underwater -> recall underwater
  • Accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions - different external cues led to retrieval failure
• State-dependent forgetting

  • Carter and Cassaday gave antihistimine drugs to pps - they had a mild sedative making the pps slightly drowsy
  • They had to learn lists of words and passages of prose then recall the information, creating four conditions
  • Learn on drug -> recall on drug
  • Learn on drug -> recall not on drug
  • Learn not on drug -> recall on drug
  • Learn not on drug -> recall not on drug
  • When the conditions are mismatched, performance on the memory test was significantly worse - when cues are absent, there is more forgetting
• Strength - range of supporting research

  • Godden and Baddley, Carter and Cassaday studies on context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting that can happen in real life - generalisable
  • Eysenck and Keane argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting information from LTM
  • Shows retrieval failure happens in real life situations as well as highly controlled conditions of a lab
• Counterpoint - context effects are not actually as strong in real life

  • Baddley states different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen - it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater
  • In contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are generally not different enough
  • Retrieval failure due to lack of contextual cues may not actually explain much everyday forgetting
• Strength - real world application

  • Retrieval cues help to overcome some forgetting in everyday situations
  • Baddely suggests cues are worth paying attention to - everyone has probably had the experience of being in one room and going to get something from another, but when you get there you forget what you were going to get, so go back to the original room and remember
  • Shows how research can remind us of strategies we use in real life to improve our recall
• Limitation - context effects may depend substantially on the type of memory being tested

  • Godden and Baddely replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall - pps had to say if they recognised a word from a list instead of retrieving it
  • When recognition was tested there was no context-dependent effect, performance was the same in all four conditions
  • Shows retrieval failure is a limited explanation for forgetting as it only applies to recall