1. Retrieval failure due to absence of cues
Forgetting
Retrieval failure due to absence of cues

2. Starter: Research Methods
A psychology A level student wanted to see whether revising in the exam hall before a test would increase students test scores compared with those who revised elsewhere
Devise an experiment to investigate these aims. You must have details of…
A directional hypothesis, the operationalised IV and DV and any controlled conditions
Your sample method and experimental design, justify your choices
Details about materials and standardised procedures
Any ethical issues that need to be considered and ways to overcome these
(12 marks)
NB: Make good scientific decisions and make sure it can work

3. research methods
A directional hypothesis, the operationalised IV and DV and any controlled conditions Participants who revised for a general knowledge test for an hour before a related test in the exam hall will score higher out of 50 than participants who revised for an hour before a related test in the library. The IV is the location of revision, whether it was in the exam hall or library, and the DV was the participants scores out of 50 from a general knowledge quiz that was on related topics to their revision Your sample method and experimental design, justify your choices It would be best to do a volunteer sample by putting posters up around the college, as the participants would then know that they were having to do an hour’s revision and a test. Additionally, the researcher is only an A level student, so would not have the time and resources to perform a random or stratified sample. The experimental design would be an independent groups design, as it will be important to keep the test the same across the conditions so that any changes in the DV is not due to one test being harder than the other

4. research methods
Details about materials and standardised procedures The materials needed are a standardised booklet with the relevant information required to revise, and a test that is related to the material revised. There will be 50 general knowledge questions to answer, and 50 facts in the revision booklet. There will be a clock to keep time and plenty of paper and pencils to answer with. For the standardised procedures, Participants will be asked to revise the 50 facts for an hour. They will be instructed not to use any revision technique other than make brief notes to try and control for any one who has well developed revision techniques. After an hour, they will be give the test in the exam hall and given 50 minutes to complete the test. Afterwards, they will be debriefed and asked if they would like to know their tests scores at a later date.
Any ethical issues that need to be considered and ways to overcome these: protection from harm. Some people may feel shamed if they receive a low mark, lowering their self esteem, to overcome this, it will be made clear that general knowledge answers are of no indication of a persons cognitive abilities. Another issue is that of privacy and confidentiality, Students may be sensitive about other students getting their general knowledge scores, so there must be no details relating the score sheets to any individual and names and other information will not be published
(12 marks)

5. Split your BWB in half-put column heading as 1
Split your BWB in half-put column heading as 1. retro-active forgetting and 2. pro-active forgetting. Put the following in the correct column and try to put in a logical order.
Ex: automatically using old PIN when trying to input new PIN in cash machine Schmidt et al (2000) Underwood (1957) Old information interferes with new information There was a positive association between how many times respondents had moved out of the area, and forgetting street names on a map Ex. You can’t log onto facebook because you have recently changed to a new password for gmail, and this is interfering with older and different password for facebook New information interferes with old information More errors made as participants were exposed to an increased number of lists

6. Pictionary in pairs
Get your homework 2 out and read through it for two minutes.
Then you must take it in turns to pick a term from below and represent it using only drawings. Keep going until all of them are used. You have 4 minutes
State dependent forgetting Context dependent forgetting
Retrieval failure theory Encoding Specificity Principle
Retro-active interference Pro-active interference
Godden and Baddeley’s research Carter and Cassidy’s research

7. The Encoding Specificity Principle – What is it?
Tulving (1983) referred to what he called the Encoding Specificity Principle (ESP).
This states that a cue is going to help us remember information, it has to be present during encoding (when we learn the information) and at retrieval (recall).
If the cues at encoding and retrieval are different then some forgetting will occur.
For example, if you revise at college, you are more likely to retrieve the information than you are if you revise at home, as the college will act as a cue for retrieval because the surroundings were there during encoding.
TASK: Explain why the series of pictures below demonstrate the Encoding Specificity Principle

8. Got it? Grab a MWB and for each example write down which type of forgetting it refers to! The answers can be retro and pro as well!
Helena was really tired yesterday when revising for a test, and although she feels wide awake today, she couldn’t remember most of the information that she had revised.
State dependent
Richard found an old ‘O’ level physics question which he had answered from 1984 whilst clearing out the loft. He wondered why even though he received an A grade, he wouldn’t be able to answer it now.
Retroactive interference (new information interferes with the old information)

9. Clive had lost most of his hippocampus through illness
Clive had lost most of his hippocampus through illness. He had kept the ability to play piano, talk, walk and read, but he had lost the ability to form new memories that lasted for any more than just a few seconds
None. Forgetting due to biological trauma caused by illness
Why is it that Izzy keeps putting her old PIN in when she wants to use the cashpoint, even though she’s had a new card and PIN for the last 9 days?
 Proactive interference (old information interferes with the new information)

10. Granny Lockyer keeps calling her oldest great-granddaughter by the wrong name. Erin is one and Eva is four, but she keeps calling Eva by Erin’s name by mistake.
Retroactive interference (new information interferes with the old information)
Peter ran from the classroom to the library to get a book. When he got there, he couldn’t remember what book it was that he needed and left without it. He returned to the classroom and immediately remembered the title and author of the book.
context dependent forgetting

11. Replication of Godden and Baddeley
Click here for the optional student research for the Godden and Baddeley study

12. Learning on land – recall on land Learning on land – recall underwater
Supporting evidence: Draw a poster to help you remember the Godden and Baddeley study-include %. You have 8 minutes
Learning on land – recall on land
Learning on land – recall underwater
Learning underwater – recall on land
Learning underwater – recall underwater

13. Extra information about Godden and Baddeley (1975)
There are a number of ways we could criticise this sample. Find at least three…
a) Not enough ps b) male dominated c) all divers d) anything else?

14. Snap evaluation… On MWBs on your own. Write a ‘so what’ to each point.
Godden and Baddeley’s study only had 18 participants. So what?
The sample only had 5 females. So what?
The participants were all divers. So what?

15. Snap evaluation…
Godden and Baddeley’s study only had 18 participants. So what?
Such a small sample makes generalising to a larger population difficult. There is a question over the population validity, as there is no way of knowing if these 18 are representative of a target population.
The sample only had 5 females. So what?
As most were male participants, this study reports male forgetting behaviour much more than it does female forgetting under these conditions. Therefore, we cannot make solid conclusions about females forgetting from this study.
The participants were all divers. So what?
It may be that divers have similar personal characteristics that the rest of the population do not. Diving is an expensive past-time, so this study may only represent those with greater socio-economic opportunities, thus not representing the population as a whole.

16. Evaluation: Make it work!
Be warned: When writing an answer about a theory or explanation, and you are using a study to support it, only criticise the study if you can make it relevant to the theory, or you will get no credit for it. This is what we call ‘grounding’.
For example. “ the fact that one of the main research studies only has a sample of 18 divers greatly reduces the population validity of the study, thus limiting the strength of the research. Consequently, we cannot effectively use Godden and Baddeley’s study to establish the validity of context-dependent theory as a major cause of forgetting.”

17. Can you describe the Carter and Cassaday’s study
On big white boards write…
The aim
The sample
The procedure
The results
How does this support state-dependent forgetting?

18. Carter and Cassaday (1998)
Carter and Cassaday (1998) gave anti-histamine (anti-allergy) drugs or a placebo (vitamin pills) to participants (students from Nottingham University). Anti-histamines have a mild side-effect of causing drowsiness and therefore altering the state of awareness for the participants. Participants were asked to learn and recall information in four different conditions
The results showed a marked decrease in accuracy of recall in a memory test when the participants’ internal state did not match at the time of encoding and retrieval, and an increased performance when the internal states did match.
This supports the concept of state dependent forgetting, as when the internal cues were different during encoding and retrieval, recall of a list of items was worse, as predicted by the theory.

19. Evaluation- finish the paragraph
P: Baddeley (1997) argues these studies do not reflect real-life, and therefore the strength of the explanations should be questioned. E: This is because….. S:

20. Evaluation
P: if the explanations of forgetting are valid, there are very important applications. E: for example, when giving important instructions to (who?) …….. S: the value of these explanations maybe that they are used to save lives of people in threatening and novel situations.

21. Snap Plan – complete this in five minutes
Discuss retrieval failure due to an absence of cues as an explanation for forgetting (16 marks)
AO1: Define retrieval failure and absence of clues, refer to the Encoding Specificity Principle here
AO1: Refer to both context and state dependent forgetting
AO3: Refer to at least one study of each (Godden and Baddeley and Cassady and Carter)
AO3: Concerns about ecological validity as states and contexts have to be very different to have an affect
AO2/3: important real life applications