Retrieval Failure

• Retrieval failure occurs due to the absence of cues
• An explanation for forgetting based on the idea that the issue relates to being able to retrieve a memory that there is but not accessible
• The encoding specificity principle proposes that memory is most effective if information that was present at encoding is also available at the time of retrieval
• Ethel Abernethy (1940) arranged for groups students to be tested before a certain course began. They were then tested each week. Some students were tested in their teaching room by usual instructor, whereas others were tested by a different instructor. Others were tested in a different room either by their usual instructor or by a different one. Therefore there were four experimental conditions in this study
• Abernethy (1940) found that those tested by the same instructor in the same room performed best. Presumably familiar things acted as a memory cues
• Goodwin (1969) asked male volunteers to remember a list of words when they were either drunk or sober. The participants were asked to recall the lists after 24 hours when some were sober but others had to get drunk again
• Goodwin found that the recall scores suggested that information learned when drunk is more available when in the same state later
• The issue with cues is that the information you’re learning is related to a lot more than just the cues. In most of the research on context effects, ps learn word lists but when you’re learning. This has been called the outshining hypothesis: a cues effectiveness is reduced by the presence of better cues. This suggests that while there use of retrieval cues can explain instances of everyday forgetting, they don’t explain everything
• Abernethy’s research suggests that you ought to revise in the room where you’ll be taking the exams. This may be unrealistic, but you could use imagination to achieve this. Smith (1979) showed that just thinking of the room where you did the original learning was as effective as actually being in the same room at the time of retrieval. This shows how research into retrieval failure can suggest strategies for improving recall in real world situations
• Tulving and Pearlstone (1966), in a lab experiment, demonstrated the power of retrieval clues, while a field experiment by Abernethy (1940) demonstrated the importance of context dependent learning among a group of students studying a course. Because much of the evidence has relevance to everyday memory experiences, the evidence has high ecological validity