Evidence to support the ‘Cue Dependency’ theory of forgetting

Who do we associate with Cue dependent theory? What kind of lab based research supports cue dependent theory?

What other cues affect recall? Your mood? The environment you’re in at the time of the event? What you were eating at the time? The smell ? The temperature? A piece of music?

According to Cue dependent theory When a memory is encoded it is laid down with other memories attached to it - like where you were at the time, or what you were wearing, or how you felt etc. These are called state and context cues If you reinstate any of these ‘cues’ you might be able to jog the memory back

Internal State? External Context? Both?

Examined Context-Dependent Forgetting in two natural Godden & Baddeley (1975) Godden & Baddeley (1975) Examined Context-Dependent Forgetting in two natural Environments.

Godden & Baddeley (1975) on land

and underwater

The Aim Was to see whether words are remembered best when recalled in the same environment in which they were learnt. Procedure: 18 members of a university diving club were given a auditory word list to learn (13 male 5 female) – either on the beach or 20 feet under the sea in Scotland. It was repeated measures. 36 words were presented 3 at a time, with 2 secs between each word then 4 secs after each set of 3 for breathing

Godden & Baddely (1975) In one condition the divers recalled in the same location where they learnt the words In the other condition they recalled in the other location

Findings/Results Overall where the words were presented did not affect accuracy very much BUT Lists learnt underwater were recalled considerably better when recalled underwater – a similar story for those memorised and recalled on land 40% more words were forgotten if recall took place in a different environment!!

Conclusion This suggests context cues enhance recall Try to use the original article to complete the study template and use GRAVE to evaluate the study Weigh up strengths and weaknesses

Context Dependent Theory- Godden and Baddeley -1975 Recall was considerably better if the context was the same as when the information was learned. This suggests that context cues enhance recall. The recognition test showed that results were affected by the change of environment. Aim: to see whether words would be recalled better in the same environment learned or a completely different environment. Procedure: 18 deep sea divers were given different lists of words to learn. They were presented on audiotape either on land or in water. They were then asked to recall the words. In one condition they were asked to recall in the same location as learned, and in another condition they were asked to recall in the opposite location and learned. Conditions Results (Mean) Learned Wet/Recalled Wet 11.4 words Learned Dry/Recalled Dry 13.5 words Learned Wet/Recalled Dry 8.4 words Learned Dry/ Recalled Wet 8.6 words Lists learned in the same location as recall had considerably better results. 40% more words were forgotten when in a different location. To control disruption participants were made to go on land/dive to make sure they were in the same state as anybody else, and given a recognition test.