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?

Godden & Baddeley (1975)

Examined Context-Dependent memory in two natural

Environments.

Godden & Baddeley (1975)

Godden & Baddeley (1975)

on land

and underwater

The Aim

• Was to to see whether words are remembered best when recalled in the same environment in which they were learnt

• Procedure: 18 divers were given a word list to learn – either on the beach or 15 feet under the sea

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!!

wet/wet wet/dry dry/dry dry/wet0

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Results of Godden & Baddeley Study – mean (average) words recalled out of 36

location

Conclusion• This suggests context cues enhance recall

• In groups of 4 and using the original article complete the study template

and use GRAVE to evaluate the study

Context Dependent Theory- Godden and Baddeley -1975

Aim: to see whether words would be recalled

better in the same environment learned or a completely different

environment.

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

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.

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.

Lists learned in the same location as recall had considerably better results. 40% more words were forgotten when in a different location.

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 unaffected by the change of environment.