Cue-Dependent Forgetting

Cue-Dependency Theory of Forgetting

In cognitive psychology, there are five main theories of what causes us to forget some of our memories, and one of these is the cue dependency theory of forgetting.

Tulving proposed the theory, and he attempted to explain what happens when the right cue/ stimuli are not present when trying to remember some memories.

Cue Context-Dependent Forgetting Definition Psychology

Before we get into the details, let’s figure out what cue context-dependent forgetting means.

Cue Context-Dependent Forgetting Research: Godden and Baddeley’s (1974) Study

Much research has been conducted to investigate how retrieval failure can explain forgetting. In the following article, we will look at Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) ’s study on cue-dependent forgetting.

Godden and Baddeley (1975) conducted experimental research to highlight the importance of environmental settings in memory retrieval.

Fig. 1. Photos are an example of a memory cue.

Cue Context-Dependent Forgetting Research: Procedure

Eighteen deep-sea divers were invited to participate in the study.

The participants were asked to memorise a list of 36 unrelated words of two or three syllables. And participants were split into two groups. One group learned the words on the beach and the second group learned the words underwater.

For the analysis:

• Half of the beach learners remained on the beach when they were asked to remember the words. The rest had to recall underwater.

• Half of the underwater learners remained underwater to recall, and the others had to recall on the beach.

The study used an experimental design:

• The independent variable was whether the learning and recall environment was matched or mismatched.
• The dependent variable was the number of words recalled.

Cue Context-Dependent Forgetting Research: Findings

The results of the study are summarised in the table below.

Overall:

• 50% recalled better when the learning and recall environment was the same.
• 40% showed cue-dependent forgetting due to the mismatch between learning and recall environments.

Godden and Baddeley (1975) concluded that the mismatch between the external cues available at learning and recall led to retrieval failure. This study demonstrates context-dependent forgetting as the difficulty of recall increases due to the lack of external cues in the setting (context).

Evaluation of Studies on Cue-Dependent Forgetting

In the following, we will show you the evaluation of Godden and Baddeley’s (1975) study. This discusses real-world applications, circularity, ecological validity and ignoring other kinds of forgetting.

The understanding of how environmental context affects memory retrieval has significant real-world applications.

The theory has been helpful to forensic and police work as it helps facilitate recall from eyewitnesses. This highlights how the theory has a real-world practical application, i.e. it is useful outside the psychology laboratory.

However, the absence of cues cannot explain all kinds of forgetting.

Further, research evidence by McGeoch & McDonald (1931) showed that the more similar the two pieces of information, the stronger the interference effect. In other words, the more similar the information, the easier it is to forget. The theory may have overlooked the effect of interference on forgetting, and therefore it can be criticised as reductionist.

The Godden and Baddeley (1975) research lack ecological validity. Although this study was conducted in natural settings, the testing materials were artificial. The word list used in the study had no personal meaning to the participants and didn’t resemble actual memory usage in the real world.

Research evidence supporting cue-dependent forgetting is criticised for having the risk of circular reasoning.

It is worth noting that no evidence has shown whether the cue has been encoded along with the testing material nor which test materials are successfully stored. The theory is difficult to refute because it does not explain whether recall failure occurs because the information is not stored or the right cue is not present.