retrieval failure

• Why does retrieval failure occur?


  Information in LTM but forgetting happens due to absence of appropriate cues or prompts encoded at the same time.
• Encoding specificity principle


  If a cue is to be helpful, it must be present at both encoding and retrieval.
• Context-dependent cues


  Aspects of the external environment work as cues to memory (sights, sounds, smells). So being in a different place would inhibit memory as we would lack environmental cues.
• + Supporting evidence for context-dependent forgetting


  E - Godden and Baddeley: Words that were learned underwater were better recalled underwater and words learned on land were better recalled on land.

  E - This suggests that the same environment for both learning and recall aids recall by providing context cues.

  L - Therefore, this supports the explanation that aspects of external environment work as cues to memory.
• State-dependent cues


  Aspects of our internal environment work as cues to memory (emotions, drugs, state of arousal). So being in a different emotional state would inhibit memory as we would lack state dependent cues.
• + Supporting evidence for state-dependent forgetting


  E - Overton (1972) participants learn material either drunk or sober. Then tested them on this information when they were drunk or sober. Found recall was worse if in a different internal state e.g., information was learnt drunk it was best recalled drunk.

  E - Suggests being in the same state for both learning and recall aids recall by providing state dependant cues.

  L - Therefore, this increases the validity of the explanation of state-dependent cues.
• Category/organisational dependent cues


  Providing cues that relate to the organisation/category of memories may aid recall, as its easier to find a file if the draws are labelled. The most effective cues have fewer things associated with them. The lack of organisation/category cues may inhibit memory.
• + Supporting evidence for category/organisation dependent forgetting


  E - Tulving and Pearlstone: asked participants to learn 48 words. The participants either used free recall or recall to match 12 4 word categories. It was found participants recalled significantly more in the category condition.

  E - Suggests the categories acted as cues and aiding recall.

  L - Therefore, this supports the explanation of category dependent forgetting.
• / Evidence is typically artificial


  E - Most of the supporting evidence for the explanations use artificial tasks and lab experiments.

  E - This means the external validity of these findings may be low as inference may not occur to the same extent in real-life settings.

  L - Therefore, this lowers the validity the explanation for interference as an explanation of forgetting.