8/19/2019 The Cue Dependency Theory of Forgetting by Tulving
Essay Question
1/2
18 Describe and evaluate the cue dependency theory of
forgetting
Your evaluation should include:
• Comparison with one other theory of forgetting
•
Strengths and/or weaknesses of the cue dependency theory
The cue dependency theory of forgetting by Tulving
suggests that we don’t lose
memories or forget them, it simply that we do not have the
necessary cues
needed to retrieve them. There are two types of cue: State and
contet.
State dependent cues proposes that a person will have better
recall if they are in
the same state in which they encoded them i.e. if they were
happy when at the
time of encoding then they would be more likely to retrieve the
memory when
happy. !ower found that when he hypnotised people into a sad
mood on recall,
so that they were in the same mood as they were at learning,
then recall was
better.
The second type of cue is a contet"dependent cue, which is
an environmental
cue. #n eample of this would be someone going downstairs to get
something,
only to forget what it is as soon as they reach the bottom. $n
order to retrieve the
memory, they have to return to the same place %contet& where
they thought
about it. 'odden ( !addeley supported the theory of
contet"dependent
forgetting in their study where divers had to learn lists of
words either on the
beach or under the sea. They found that when they recalled in
the same location
%contet& where they had learnt they recalled signi)cantly
more words.
#nother theory of forgetting is *reud’s theory of repression.
!oth theories aresimilar in that they both address the emotional
side of forgetting. +hereas cue
dependency would state that we forget because we are no longer
in the same
state as we were when we made the memory, repression suggests
that we
cannot retrieve a memory because it is buried deep in our
unconscious mind to
protect us against negative emotions. epression is focused on
the negative,
traumatic events, whereas cue dependency assumes that the memory
cannot be
retrieved whether positive or negative simply because the person
is not in the
same state.
# strength of the cue dependent theory of forgetting is that it
has real lifeapplications. *or eample, if police take eyewitnesses
back to a crime scene,
they are likely to recall more details of the event. $t can also
be used to help
trigger memories in people with dementia. *or eample by taking
them back to
where they lived in their childhood or giving them smells or
items from their
youth.
The theory is backed up by a lot of evidence such as
'odden ( !addeley, !ower
and Tulving ( -earlstone.
owever, !addeley argues that the eects of contet dependent
forgetting only
occur if the contets in which the information is learnt and
retrieved are vastly
