Zusammenfassung der Ressource
2.6 Retrieval Failure - Explanations for Forgetting
- Retrieval failure is where information is available
in long term memory but cannot be recalled
without cues.
- Tulving (1983)
- Reviewed research and discovered a consistent pattern calling
this the encoding specificity principle. This states that a cue has
to be both present at encoding and present at retrieval.
- Context-dependant forgetting
- Recall depends on external cue -
weather or place
- Godden and Baddeley (1975)
- Procedure: Studied deep sea divers and made
them learn a list of words either underwater or
on land then recall them in either of those
contexts.
- Findings: In two of the conditions where the
environmental contexts of learning and recall
did not match recall was 40% lower. Concluding
that external cues at learning were different to
those at retrieval so there was retrieval failure.
- State-dependant forgetting
- Recall depends on internal cue -
feeling upset or being drunk
- Carter and Cassaday (1998)
- Procedure: Gave antihistamine drugs to
participants which had a mild sedative
effect. The participants then had to learn
lists of words and passages in 4 conditions,
drunk learn not drunk recall and vise versa
or same condition in both.
- Findings: In conditions where there was a mismatch
between internal state at learning and recall,
performance on memory test was significantly worse.
- Evaluation
- Strengths:
- Real world application. Retrieval cues may help to overcome
forgetfulness in everyday situations. Showing how research can
remind us of strategies used in real life.
- Research support. Impressive
range of research that supports
retrieval failure explanation.
- Weaknesses:
- Recall vs recognition. Context effects may
depend substantially on the type if memory
being tested. Retrieval failure is only an
explanation for forgetting because it applies
when a person has to recall information rather
than recognise it.