retrieval failure ao1 & 3

• Proactive interference


  When new information interferes with the recall of old information
• Retroactive interference


  When old information interferes with the recall of new information
• One weakness of interference theory as an explanation of forgetting is that it does not fully account for all types of forgetting
• Cue-dependent forgetting


  This theory explains forgetting in the LTM as a retrieval failure: the information is stored in the LTM but cannot be accessed
• Cues


  • Cues which are linked meaningfully to the information to be remembered
  • Cues which are not linked meaningfully to the information to be remembered
• Context


  External cues encoded when learning information
• Mental state


  Internal cues encoded when learning information
• The 'tip of the tongue' phenomenon occurs when we cannot access a memory until the correct retrieval cue is used
• Cue-dependent forgetting


  1. Encoding of cues

  2. Retrieval of cues
• Encoding Specificity Principle


  The greater the similarity between the encoding event and the retrieval event, the greater the likelihood of recalling the original memory
• Context-dependent forgetting


  Forgetting that occurs when the environment during recall is different from the environment you were in when you were learning
• Godden and Baddeley (1975) study


  • Participants learned lists of words on the beach or underwater
  • Participants recalled the words on the beach or underwater
• The results showed that participants recalled more words when they learned and recalled in the same environment compared to when they learned and recalled in different environments
• State-dependent forgetting


  Forgetting that occurs when your mood or physiological state during recall is different from the mood you were in when you were learning
• Goodwin et al. (1969) study


  • Participants were sober or intoxicated on day 1 and day 2
  • Participants performed various tasks on day 1 and day 2
• Participants performed worse on day 2 when their state (sober or intoxicated) was different from day 1, except for the picture recognition task
• Paul forgot his jacket


  He also forgot his wallet
• The Godden & Baddeley study has limited ecological validity because the environment was familiar to the divers but the task was artificial
• The Godden & Baddeley study is reliable because it was a controlled experiment that can be replicated
• The studies on context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting do not take into account the meaning of the material and the level of motivation of the person when learning the information
• Marian and Fausey (1986) found that memory for a story was better if the language in which it was presented and the language used to test memory were the same
• The Miles and Hardman (1998) study has limited ecological validity because the tasks performed by the participants were artificial
• The Miles and Hardman (1998) study is reliable because it was a controlled experiment that can be replicated