Retrieval Failure - Explanations for forgetting

• lack of cues can cause retrieval failure

  associated cues are stored with each memory - if cues aren't available you may not be able to retrieve the memory
• the encoding specificity principle (esp) 


  Tulving suggested that cues aid retrieval if the same cues are present at encoding and recall. The closer the recall cue to the coding cue the better the retrieval.
• some cues have meaning linked to the memory 


  some cues are linked to material in a meaningful way like the cue 'STM' can link to loads of info about the store
• some cues have no meaningful link

  some cues can be encoded at learning but they're not remembered in a meaningful way i.e. context-dependant forgetting and state-dependant forgetting
• Godden and Baddeley - context-dependant forgetting procedure

  cues were the contexts where learning and recall took place. deep-sea divers learned word lists and were later asked to recall them.
• Godden and Baddeley - context-dependant forgetting findings

  when the environmental contexts of learning and recall didn't match accurate recall was 40% lower than when they did match. when external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall, this lead to retrieval failure due to lack of cues.
• Godden and Baddeley - context-dependant forgetting conclusion

  this study demonstrates context-dependant forgetting because information not accessible when context at recall did not match context at learning.
• strength of godden and baddeley's study -

  an impressive range of evidence supports this explanation of forgetting. Baddeley et al's research on deep sea divers. Also, Eysenck argues that retrieval failure is the main reason for forgetting. Supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation, especially when conducted in real-life situation as well as controlled labs.
• limitation of godden and baddeley's study

  context effects are actually not that strong in real life. baddeley argued that different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen. learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting as the environmets are not different enough. so the rwa of retrieval failure due to contextual cues doesn't actually explain much forgetting