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forgetting - retrieval failure - Coggle Diagram
forgetting - retrieval failure
definitions
forgetting that occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory - is available but not accessible unless a stable cue is provided (triggers information, external or internal)
encoding specificity principle
Tulving said that a cue has to be present at encoding and retrieval failure occurs when a cue is not present (the cue is linked to material remembered in a meaningful way, it is encoded at the time of learning but not meaningful - can be context and state dependent)
types of cues
context dependent - external cues, in the environment
state dependent - internal cues, mood, physiological state
cues studies
context dependent forgetting - Godden and Baddeley
procedure - 18 diving club participants took part in a repeated measures design consisting of 4 conditions 1.
learn on land - recall on land
2.
learn on land - recall in water
3.
learn under water - recall under water
4.
learn under water - recall o land
- they had to learn 38 unrelated words which they heard twice during the learning stage - the words were presented in blocks with a 4 second interval in between to ensure the noise of the breathing apparatus did not affect hearing - as a distraction they had to listen and write down 15 numbers - there were 24 hours between conditions and the study was conducted over 4 days - participants tested in pairs
findings - accuracy recall was 40% lower in the conditions were the environmental context of learning and recall did not match
conclusion - external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall which had led to retrieval failure
Baddeley argues that contexts in real life do not differ as much as they do in studies such as this. he argues that contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen - this is a limitation because it means that the real life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don't actually explain much forgetting
Godden and Baddeley tried to replicate their experiment using a recognition test - there was no context dependent effect and performance was the same in all four conditions - this is a limitation of context effects because it means that the presence or absence only effects memory when it is tested in a certain way
state dependent forgetting - Carter and Cassaday
procedure - the study required the use of anti-histamine drugs which are a common treatment for allergies but have a side effect of drowsiness. this would place participants in a different internal physiological state than their normal awake state - 24 volunteer undergraduates from the university of Nottingham were assigned to four different conditions and their task was to learn a list of 20 words and a passage of prose that was 134 words long but broken into 18 separate units. they were then asked to recall the information 24 hours later - 1.
learn on drug - recall on drug
2.
learn on drug - recall not on drug
3.
learn not on drug - recall not on drug
4.
learn not on drug - recall not on drug
findings - in the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning on recall, performance on memory test was significantly worse
conclusion - when internal cues are absent there is more forgetting
limitation - the methodology can be questioned in this study. learning a list of words and a passage of prose are not normal everyday activities. this leads us to think that the task was artificial, decreasing the validity of the results.
limitation - some people argue that the encoding specificity principle cannot be tested because it leads to a form of circular reasoning. the assumption is made that if a participant produces a successful recall of a word then the cue must have been encoded at the time of learning. if a cue does not result in successful recall then we assume the cue was not encoded. this is an issue because they are just assumptions and there is no way to independently establish whether the cue has really been encoded
evaluation
strength - there is a range of evidence that supports retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting. studies by Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday are two examples. this is a strength because it increases the validity of the explanation
limitation - Baddeley argues that context effects are not actually not very strong, especially in real life. different contexts have to be very different before an effect is seen. for example it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as water. this is a limitation as it means that the findings cannot be generalised to everyday life.
limitation - the context effect may be related to the kind of memory being tested. Godden and Baddeley replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test and there was no context dependent effect. this is a limitation as it means the presence or absence of cues only affect memory when you test it in a certain way