16 Marker - Retrieval Failure
The Retrieval Failure theory studies how people may forget information
because of how there are too little cues. Information that is placed in a
memory store brings with it associated cues at the same time. If the cues
aren’t available when you want to recall the information, it may seem that
you have forgotten it - this is due to retrieval failure, and is the inability of
being able to access memories that are there.
The encoding specificity principle was created by Tulving, who looked into
research that was conducted for the retrieval failure theory, and found a
consistent pattern in the findings. It suggests that if a cue helps us recall
information, it has to be present when we learn the information, and when
we are recalling it. This means that if the cues that are available are
different, or not present during retrieval, then you may forget the
information. Some cues are remembered in meaningful ways, such as by
using mnemonic techniques. Others are encoded when learning the
information, but not in a meaningful way - external cues (context-
dependent forgetting), and internal cues (state-dependent forgetting).
Godden & Baddeley both researched context-dependent forgetting by
giving a group of divers a list of words to lean either underwater or on
land, and then they had to recall these words either underwater or on land.
This created four conditions: learn on land - recall on water, learn
underwater - recall on land, learn on land - recall underwater, learn
underwater - recall on land. Around 50% better recall when learning and
recall situations are the same, 40% more words were forgotten when the
condition changed. Recall for learning on land and recall on land was 13.5
compared to 8.6 when they learned the words on land and had to recall
underwater
Carter & Cassaday studied state-dependent forgetting. They gave
antihistamines (that have a slightly sedative or tiring effect) to groups of
participants, followed by a recall task. They were compared to a non-
sedated control group. They found that participants best recalled words
when they were in the same state of mind as when they learned the
words. If they’d taken antihistamines during encoding, they best recalled
them when they were on antihistamines.
A strength of the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting is that it has
The Retrieval Failure theory studies how people may forget information
because of how there are too little cues. Information that is placed in a
memory store brings with it associated cues at the same time. If the cues
aren’t available when you want to recall the information, it may seem that
you have forgotten it - this is due to retrieval failure, and is the inability of
being able to access memories that are there.
The encoding specificity principle was created by Tulving, who looked into
research that was conducted for the retrieval failure theory, and found a
consistent pattern in the findings. It suggests that if a cue helps us recall
information, it has to be present when we learn the information, and when
we are recalling it. This means that if the cues that are available are
different, or not present during retrieval, then you may forget the
information. Some cues are remembered in meaningful ways, such as by
using mnemonic techniques. Others are encoded when learning the
information, but not in a meaningful way - external cues (context-
dependent forgetting), and internal cues (state-dependent forgetting).
Godden & Baddeley both researched context-dependent forgetting by
giving a group of divers a list of words to lean either underwater or on
land, and then they had to recall these words either underwater or on land.
This created four conditions: learn on land - recall on water, learn
underwater - recall on land, learn on land - recall underwater, learn
underwater - recall on land. Around 50% better recall when learning and
recall situations are the same, 40% more words were forgotten when the
condition changed. Recall for learning on land and recall on land was 13.5
compared to 8.6 when they learned the words on land and had to recall
underwater
Carter & Cassaday studied state-dependent forgetting. They gave
antihistamines (that have a slightly sedative or tiring effect) to groups of
participants, followed by a recall task. They were compared to a non-
sedated control group. They found that participants best recalled words
when they were in the same state of mind as when they learned the
words. If they’d taken antihistamines during encoding, they best recalled
them when they were on antihistamines.
A strength of the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting is that it has
